HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Ahead of Election Day, ABC Action News is taking a closer look at a congressional race that affects parts of Hillsborough, Pasco,and Polk counties.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp, a Democrat, is challenging incumbent Republican U.S. Representative Laurel Lee, who is running for reelection.
Kemp is a Hillsborough County commissioner countywide and has served as a commissioner for eight years.
Lee served as Governor Ron DeSantis' Secretary of State before winning her seat in 2022. Before that, she was a Circuit Court Judge in Hillsborough and a federal prosecutor.
Reporter Kylie McGivern met with both candidates to ask about their priorities.
How do you describe yourself?
Lee: “Well, first and foremost, I’m from this community and I love this community. This is where I’ve worked, this is where I’ve raised my family, before I ran for Congress, I was a lawyer and a judge here in the Hillsborough County area, so it’s very important for me to be able to be a voice for the people here who are my friends and my neighbors, and to advocate for the kinds of policies that I think are important to the district. Be it economic policies, to bring down the price of everyday goods and inflation, or things to make sure that our border is secure and our community stays safe.”
Kemp: "Well, I’m a county commissioner countywide, which is representing 1.5 million people of Hillsborough County, the congressional district is actually half that size, believe it or not. And 65% of it is in northeast Hillsborough County, where I’ve been a commissioner for eight years. And been elected twice and in primaries by more than five percent, but that’s a countywide figure. In support in this area. But I describe myself as — I have been a staunch advocate for affordable housing and went and passed the first time, that in Hillsborough County we had ever put aside a $10 million fund, yearly fund for affordable housing. It was there for four years and the current county commission were trying to zero it out and ended up at $2 million instead, which I think is way too little for the crisis that we’ve had for a long time. I’ve also been a huge transit advocate, which — I think if we had more transit now, unfortunately we don’t, we’re still the most underfunded transit system in the nation for a metro area this size, not by just a little bit but by a large amount, but it would have made us more resilient, especially in areas like the University community area where people had no idea that they had to evacuate. They were not in evacuation zones and their cars ended up in two feet of water. And these were the one car they depended on to get back and forth to work and we know thousands and thousands, who knows how many, were destroyed in Hillsborough County. But without options, like transit, sometimes for two working people, having one car and having transit as the other option is a way that it can really help middle class, working families to get along is having some kids of opportunities for working class housing that’s affordable. It’s just been such an impossible time for people to survive and deal with the inflationary aspects of this community.”
What are the top issues that you are focused on?
Lee: “So I’ve worked a lot on border security, the Department of Homeland Security, making sure that we end the crisis at our southern border and that’s something that I will take with me in to the next Congress as another key priority. That’s something that’s a very serious threat not just for border communities, but across our country as we see the flow of fentanyl, the increase in human trafficking, so that’s one thing, border security, that I’ll continue to focus on. Another key issue for me has been work to end the exploitation of women and girls. That’s another thing that goes way back in my professional career to my time as a prosecutor. And now, as a member of Congress, I have the ability to work on ensuring that federal law enforcement has the tools they need and that our statutes have been modernized and updated, so one of the things that I’m really pleased to see happen in my first term, was a bill called The Report Act, it was actually — passed the House, passed the Senate, and signed into law, and I was the sponsor in the House of this bill that would ensure that law enforcement is getting the information that they need from tech companies to help identify and prosecute people who are trying to traffic children online.”
Kemp: “Well number one is reproductive rights. Because that is on the ballot, literally. And Laurel Lee celebrated the overturn of Roe v. Wade. And she has remained silent. I will not remain silent in any way with reproductive rights on the ballot. We’re losing doctors, we’re losing the ability of hospitals to deal with high-risk pregnancies, a doctor is not seeing women in the early months of their pregnancy, we still don’t know, but several women we know have died in Georgia and we’re just hearing this from two years ago. In Idaho, where they did this, they’re airlifting women to other states that are critical need, that are facing death, we’ve heard about Texas. I am a total advocate for returning, restoring Roe v. Wade. In the state of Florida and across the country and I will loudly and clearly proclaim that. And she has been nowhere there to — for women. For women and families that need this.”
Response from Lee on reproductive rights
Lee: “Well first, I believe the Supreme Court correctly overturned the Roe decision because this is an issue that belongs with the states. This is a subject that should have always been in the hands of Florida voters and our state legislature to make law and policy. So I believe that the Supreme Court correctly returned that issue to the states. And so it is where it should be, with our state legislature, and now this election, voters will have the opportunity to vote on the Constitutional amendment. I am pro life but have always supported exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother. And I think it’s important we promote a culture of life that includes supporting women, supporting families, encouraging policies that support IVF, and those are all things that I have been doing in Congress.”
What are your top strengths?
Lee: “Well certainly my background in law has been an important art of my first two years in Congress. So I have served on the Judiciary Committee and also the Homeland Security Committee, where we’ve talked a lot about border security and about community safety. So my background in law as a prosecutor and a judge has been very important there. I also chair the House’s Subcommittee on elections, as part of a House Committee on Administration. And there, my time as Florida’s Secretary of State has been really important, because Florida is so good at running efficient, secure elections. And being in Congress with that background really has given me an opportunity to help showcase good, solid policy, and how other states could be conducting their elections in a way that is secure, transparent, accurate, and Florida gets their results typically right there on Election Night, despite being such a large state. So there’s a lot that other places around the country could really learn from what we’re doing right here at home.”
Kemp: “My top strengths are that I think I can appeal and let people know that I’ll be voting in their interests. I’m not voting — she’s got lots of corporate, big company support, big oil, some of the inflationary grocery stores, Publix, you know, big donations from those kinds of things. I don’t have that. I have very much grassroots support in donations, but it’s really because I’ve always been — and I’ve got eight years of a record of advocating for that over and over and over again in Hillsborough County. Doing everything I can to make people’s lives better, to look at that and not been in the pockets of some of the special interests. So I think that’s fairly clear from my record.”
How will you address issues surrounding housing and affordability?
Lee: “So affordable housing is a crisis in Florida. It has been wonderful to see so many people from around the country want to come live in Florida and I’m not surprised, we are such an incredible state, but with that, has really brought a strain on Florida’s housing market. One of the most important things that we can do is really address the economy overall. Inflation over these last few years has effected every family’s ability to afford the basic necessities. Whether that’s groceries, paying rent, paying a mortgage, so in Congress, one of the things that we can do to help make home ownership and residential, even if it’s renting, residential, having a good, safe place to live, accessible for everyone, is to make sure that there’s more money every month in the pockets of Floridians. One of the key ways we do that is supporting policies that promote energy independence and all of the above energy strategy, bring down the price of fuel, tap into American resources, that will lower the cost of goods, really across the board, and help bring down inflation.”
Kemp: “Well I’m looking, in particular, I have been looking to kind of protect and make sure that we don’t lose social security, Medicare, the negotiated prescription drug reductions that capped insulin at $35 a month for Medicare but also, hopefully, will imbue itself in all the opportunities for people with prescription drugs and looking at lowering that."
“The other thing that I’m focused on, and it’s more of a federal issue that a local issue ,but it’s disturbed me locally for a while, and that is the corporate, large corporate speculation on housing in this area, I understand that they have bought up like 27,000 homes and these are middle class homes, three bedrooms, two baths, in good areas with school districts that, you know, families are just — they can’t compete. They’re paying cash for it, they don’t have an opportunity, so I’ve been reading about some of the bills, like putting higher tax burdens on corporations that own this amount of single-family homes. I think that’s a problem. Also, in terms of apartments, and rentals, they have a rent algorithm many of the landlords here are using that raises the rents in a way that has been very speculative and again, has hurt people. So not only to build more affordable housing that is subsidized and made available to people, but also to look at these ways of collusion, I think there’s an anti-trust suit that may occur in these companies that are setting this rent fixing, widespread, but also in terms of single-family housing, because I think, you know, you can’t build your way out of these things. If they exist as systemic problems. And that is something that I think is on the table for Congress to do.”
Stop-gap spending bill/FEMA funding
Lee: “I support FEMA and all of the federal disaster programs that will help Floridians recover, not only from the severe storms that we saw this year, but even those that have come in years before. The recent vote in Congress related not to funding itself, but the way were were funding. Congress for too long has been passing funding through means of a continuing resolution. Which is intended to be a temporary stop-gap measure. It is appropriate that Congress should instead be passing individual appropriations bills — that’s the way that we will cut the wasteful and excessive spending in Congress. Until we get back to responsible, thoughtful, detailed analysis of appropriations bills, that’s not gonna happen. So I am a big advocate for getting back to that appropriations process, but at the same time I absolutely support FEMA and have made clear throughout our time here back in the district that I stand ready to go back to Washington DC for a special session and fully support funding these disaster relief programs that are needed in our district.”
Kemp: “I could not believe that someone in this district, in U.S. House 15, in these Florida representatives, would vote to cut billions from FEMA. And I mean, this was as Hurricane Helene was approaching. This wasn’t just theoretical. They didn’t know about Milton yet. To me — it was stunning and shocking and to me, almost disqualifying. For someone to do that. Because that is just playing political games instead of looking at what you have to do for this district."
Looking at campaign contribution data available on the Federal Election Commission website, Kemp received $437,466 in contributions, whileLee has raised nearly three times that — $1,295,772.
“I want voters to know how important it is that they get out and cast that ballot. And when I was Secretary of State, I got to be Florida’s chief elections official and work with local election supervisors all over the state. And we have an election system here in Florida that they can be really proud of and that encourages participation by all Floridians," Lee said.
The polls open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday and close at 7 p.m. Unlike early voting, on Election Day, you must vote in the polling place assigned to your precinct.
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