I’m a former Title I elementary school teacher & community advocate turned public official—virtually overnight. After being sworn in to replace an absence on the Tampa city council less than a year ago, it’s been a whirlwind to catch up and get to work serving the people of my beautiful city. It's far more than a full time job to understand and help improve the many departments that make our city operate; from ride-alongs with our firefighters to tours of our city’s sanitation & trash disposal departments, I’ve spent the last 8 months striving to understand how we can most effectively make Tampa a better city to live in.

I was sworn into office committed to work on affordable housing solutions, and I’m proud to have nearly doubled the amount of money Tampa’s budget is putting toward safe, affordable housing—but it takes more than a year to bring about the necessary changes. In the meantime, I’m working to put an end to “toilet-to-tap” plans that would inject sewage into the Florida aquifer while finding ways to protect women & doctors from being prosecuted for reproductive health and gender-affirming care decisions. I also sit on the estuary board to continue to preserve and prioritize our wildlife and the transportation planning authority where I’m opposed to highway expansion and pushing to expand transit options..

Suffice to say, I’ve been busy, and I love my job. I’d love to keep doing my job- but I’ve never run for office before. And now, I’m up against an “establishment” pick, from my own side of the aisle, targeting the only woman on Tampa City Council. Suddenly the campaigning part of holding public office has snuck up me- so I thought I’d start this overwhelming process by finding my allies online, in spaces like this one where we are all trying to make the world a better place.

I’m one of the younger members of the city council. As Florida shifts more and more to the right, we need to ensure that Tampa stands as a bastion for our values. I’m committed to continuing to fight for affordable housing, more accessible transportation, reproductive rights, and our wildlife & water.

I’m hopeful I can at least partially document this process, and help to build my community using spaces like these- because a lot of elected officials just don’t. Everyday people can—and need—to run for office, because that's the only way we protect our communities from special interests.

So- a few things you can do/if you want to follow along:

Follow any of my social media, Sign up for my non-spammy email list, OR

The most intimidating part of running against old power is how much money they can raise. If you can donate (or just share!) my contribution link- that would be awesome!

(it's all at https://linktr.ee/lynnhurtak)

Please feel free to drop suggestions, questions, or just words of encouragement in the comments.

Thanks everyone!

Lynn Hurtak

Tampa City Councilwoman Seat 3

A new law just passed by the Florida legislature — SB 620 — threatens the ability of local governments to pass important conservation measures like light pollution laws that help save baby sea turtles. We need your help. Governor DeSantis is considering whether to sign this bill into law right now and he needs to hear from us.

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/save-the-sea-turtles-tell-governor-desantis-to-veto-sb-620?source?red031622

Election officials and the Florida Secretary of State agree: Florida’s elections are fair and secure. We are a model for the nation: Republican, Democrat and Independent voters alike have used Florida's secure vote by mail system for decades. After the 2020 election, Governor Ron DeSantis touted Florida’s election process and legislators called our state the “gold” standard nationwide.

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-gov-desantis-veto-the-anti-voter-freedom-act?source=31022

The Florida Legislature just approved a new law that would put a tax on sunshine, kill thousands of good-paying jobs in the solar industry and impose new fees that would hurt low-income Floridians. We need your help. Can you send an email to Governor DeSantis and tell him to veto this bill?

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-ron-desantis-veto-the-tax-on-solar/?source=red3722

The Florida Legislature is close to approving a new law that would put a tax on sunshine, kill thousands of good-paying jobs in the solar industry and impose new fees that would hurt low-income Floridians.

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-ron-desantis-speak-out-against-the-tax-on-solar?source=rd3222

Done Waiting is a progressive group that endorses and advocates for progressive candidates and policies all around the country.

The application can be filled out at this link and it takes about 30 seconds to complete.

When you apply, you can choose to volunteer for 4-6 or 8-12 hours each week.. We are a completely volunteer-run organization, so all positions are unpaid. Because of this, we try and keep our hours flexible.

Much of what you would be doing would be voter outreach, usually through phone banking. There is also a weekly mandatory meeting on Wednesdays at 9 pm EST. The availability of leadership opportunities in the organization can vary, as our need for more positions increases as we grow. Leadership positions could include managing social media accounts, leading phone bank shifts, helping create graphics, and more.

Any work you would be doing would be completely remote, and we accept people from any location.

If you would like to be a part of an organization advocating for progressive values, while also learning how to organize and lead or manage teams, apply to Done Waiting. You can meet hundreds of other young, like-minded progressives from all over the country. In addition to our organizing, we also have an org-wide book club and policy discussions that any members can participate in if they want. Letters of Recommendation will be provided for strong performance in the organization.

You can learn more about us and our values here.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

We are a group that advocates for and endorses progressive candidates and policies. We endorse progressive candidates and help them in elections by making thousands of calls to voters on their behalf.

We also pressure centrist politicians that are already in office into supporting policies like Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, Debt-Free College, and getting corporate money out of politics.

We’re sick of half-measures and incremental changes that do nothing to help average, working-class people. We’re tired of being told to wait for reforms that are long overdue, especially when we’re running out of time for bold, comprehensive action on issues like climate change or the student debt crisis.

We will never refuse to endorse a progressive candidate based on who their opponent is. We refuse to ignore those that are in races against powerful people, as these are often some of the most important races to be won.

We will rescind an endorsement if a candidate backs an establishment candidate over a progressive, if they take any corporate money, or if they compromise the progressive values that we endorsed them for in the first place.

We’re sick of a status quo that only works for the wealthy and the elite.

In our first 2 months, we made 60,000 calls (without a dialer) for Adam Christensen, a progressive candidate that ran in Florida’s 3rd Congressional District. Since the election, we have also made calls to constituents urging them to call their representatives to get them to support the Green New Deal, and we have also made calls in Georgia to get people to register and vote in the runoff election.

After that we began making calls to voters to increase support for Medicare For All. Since, we have endorsed Nina Turner’s campaign for Representative of Ohio’s 11th District and have been performing outreach on her campaign’s behalf for her primary election on August 3rd. In our first week phone banking for her campaign, our phone bankers made 28,649 calls on her behalf.

If these issues interest you and you would like to learn more about us, you can visit our website at this link.

There you can find more information about us and the policies that we support, as well as the candidates we have endorsed. If someone you know is looking for an endorsement, they can apply for one there as well.

You can also apply to volunteer to help us carry out our mission. This is an entirely volunteer-run organization, and we welcome anyone that would like to volunteer their time to fight for these policies. You can meet plenty of other young, like-minded progressives from all over the country, and the application only takes about 30 seconds. The application can be found here.

You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

It's at 7pm tonight. RSVP to get the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYudemsrDkuGtIe09R2y6ro5N-RZxSHqQNT

Hello, I am doing a collegiate research project through the AP Capstone Program surveying Florida voters on how they perceive voter suppression in the country and in the state. Putting politics aside, whether you believe in voter suppression or not, this is just a survey to investigate how election integrity is perceived by voters in the state. Thank You! The survey is below

Survey