Democrat Brian Nathan, a Navy veteran, union organizer, and first-time candidate, shocked Republican state Rep. Josie Tomkow. Credit: Dave Decker / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
Sen. Brian Nathan, D-Tampa, has served less than a year in the Florida Senate and is up for a rematch in November against former Rep. Josie Tomkow, but his strategy hasn’t changed.
The union leader is still focused on legislation to roll back the union dues bill recently passed by the GOP majority in the Legislature that targeted non-public sector unions.
“I want to make sure that our teachers, transit workers and sanitation workers have the same opportunity for representation like our other unionized public sector workers do, like police and fire,” Nathan said. “There is no reason to separate them because they are all public sector workers, and they should be respected the same way.”
Nathan spoke to the News Service about the Tampa Bay Rays stadium deal, Amendment 3 and what the biggest issue is for his constituents in Tampa.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: What is the biggest problem facing your constituents that Tallahassee isn’t paying enough attention to?
NATHAN: Everybody’s saying the affordability crisis, and that hasn’t changed. I think that’s pretty universal at the moment. Housing’s unattainable for a lot of people. The price of gas, the price of groceries, the price of insurance, the price of everything’s gone through the roof. But one particular issue we’re facing here in Tampa right now is water management. Stormwater management has become a huge issue. Areas that weren’t flooding are now flooding, and areas that historically flooded, the flooding’s gotten worse. There hasn’t been a real plan to mitigate this at a large scale. In the two hurricanes we had a couple of years ago, my house flooded, and we never had that issue for as long as I’ve been there. I know South Tampa is really dealing with it, but even northern parts of my district that again, never really had flooding issues. In the past, we’ve had bad rainstorms, the roads flood, and the water goes away. Now it’s hanging around, the water’s deeper, and the water is faster. This has become a real problem for the entire district.
Q: What is your stance on the proposed Tampa Bay Rays stadium development deal?
NATHAN: That’s actually a discussion I’ve been having this morning. I’ve been in contact with a couple of city council members. I’m trying to make sure that this is actually in the best interest of the community. My district covers where they’re proposing to build this. One thing we’re looking at is a community benefits agreement to make sure that turning over and helping subsidize such a massive project actually makes sense. I haven’t made a final decision about where I stand on it because I’ve got to finish looking at this massive amount of documents that they just released.
Q: What would you say to a Republican who voted for you in March, but is reconsidering their vote in November?
NATHAN: My platform hasn’t changed. I still want to go back to Tallahassee to fight for regular working-class folks, regardless of party political affiliation, or even for NPAs who don’t feel at home in either party. The affordability crisis, the flooding that we talked about earlier, neither of those things respect party affiliation, that has nothing to do with it. So, right now you have the choice between someone who is from this community, has lived in this community going on 20 years, and someone who has just moved in here from a rural community that hasn’t had the experience of living in this community and understanding the needs. Then I would also ask, has your life gotten demonstrably better in the last eight years, because my opponent has been in the Legislature for the last eight years. She loves to talk about insurance reform. Well, she had the opportunity to enact that, propose those type of reforms and we saw nothing coming from her. I would say go look at her record, see what she’s actually done, if anything that she has done, has actually been material in your day-to-day life. I suggest the answer is no.
Q: If voters approved Amendment 3, what do you think will happen in the Tampa area you represent?
Nathan: That is a tough one. Services are going to be cut, there’s no way around that. I think we’re going to see a reduction in public transit. Bus lines are going to be cut. We already have one of the most severely underfunded public transit systems in the nation for a city of our size. You’re still going to see cuts to our first responders. Just because it’s mandated that we spend the money, there’s going to be less money coming in, and there’s going to be fewer dollars to go around to fulfill those mandates. You’re going to see cuts to fire stations, to the hiring of new police, everything is going to be affected. You’re going to see fees for services, potentially fees for public parks or you’re going to see the city or the county potentially getting rid of public parks. As to the exact ways, that remains to be seen because, that’s up to the city and the county and their budget. But there’s going to be cuts to everything, there’s no way we can avoid that.
Q: You campaigned heavily on working class issues. In the spirit of Dolly Parton, if you win in November, how will you advocate for the Floridians who work 9 to 5?
Nathan: First and foremost, we need to roll back the attacks that we’ve seen over the last couple years on our public sector unions. These are our teachers. These are the transit workers. These are the people that pick up your trash. The idea that somehow these workers and their unions are doing a disservice to the communities is really preposterous. It’s just undermining the power that regular folks have when you attack unions like this. So rolling back the legislation that has directly attacked the protected right in the Florida state constitution to organize, that would be hands down the first thing. I want to make sure that our teachers, transit workers and sanitation workers have the same opportunity for representation like our other unionized public sector workers do, like police and fire. There is no reason to separate them because they are all public sector workers, and they should be respected the same way. Then we need to start looking at ways we can address the lack of access to health insurance. That tends to be a huge issue that people right now are making choices between: Do I pay my rent? Do I pay my mortgage? Do I keep my health insurance? Do I get my meds? That is the second thing we really need to start attacking, making sure that everybody has some kind of access to decent healthcare, decent health insurance.
Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.
Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | BlueSky
This article appears in August 27 – September 02, 2026.
Related