West Hillsborough voters will begin deciding Saturday who they want to take Lt. Gov. Jay Collins\u2019 old state Senate seat.<\/p>\n
Republican state Rep. Josie Tomkow of Polk City is facing off against Democrat Brian Nathan, a Navy veteran and local electrical workers union leader, to represent a district that includes South Tampa and western Hillsborough suburbs like Carrollwood and Westchase.<\/p>\n
The election is March 24, and early in-person voting runs from Saturday to March 21.<\/p>\n
Voters can cast their ballots in person at any of the following locations. Mail ballots can also be dropped off at these sites:<\/p>\n
Fred B. Karl County Center, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd.<\/p>\n
Jan Kaminis Platt Regional Library, 3910 S. Manhattan Ave.<\/p>\n
Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library, 2902 W. Bearss Ave.<\/p>\n
Keystone Recreation Center, 17928 Gunn Highway<\/p>\n
Maureen B. Gauzza Public Library, 11211 Countryway Blvd.<\/p>\n
North Tampa Branch Library, 8916 North Blvd.<\/p>\n
Northdale Recreation Center, 15510 Hooting Owls Place<\/p>\n
Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Northwest Regional Office, 4575 Gunn Highway<\/p>\n
Port Tampa Community Center, 4702 W. McCoy St.<\/p>\n
Robert L. Gilder Elections Service Center, 2514 N. Falkenburg Road<\/p>\n
Town \u2018N Country Regional Public Library, 7606 Paula Drive<\/p>\n
Voters should also remember to bring photo identification. Acceptable forms of ID include a Florida driver\u2019s license or ID card, a U.S. passport and student or military IDs. Here\u2019s<\/a> the full list.<\/p>\n The Tampa Bay Times asked the candidates about their platforms<\/a> in a voter guide published earlier this month. Both candidates said they\u2019re focused on lowering insurance costs. Nathan also said he wants to protect workers\u2019 rights by repealing anti-union legislation<\/a>. Tomkow said she\u2019ll prioritize property tax relief.<\/p>\n Nathan has raised almost $70,000, while Tomkow has $266,000 in her candidate account. Tomkow also has more than $3.6 million across two political committees.<\/p>\n Tomkow, who represents a state House district covering part of Polk County, has faced questions from the Nathan campaign about her residence.<\/p>\n Tomkow told the Tampa Bay Times in February that she\u2019s based at her family\u2019s ranch house in Polk City, which is within the House district she represents. She said she\u2019s planning to move to her husband\u2019s home in South Tampa this month, which is in the Senate district she hopes to represent.<\/p>\n \u201cMy husband has been (in Senate District 14) for decades and I\u2019ll be living here in a matter of weeks regardless of the outcome of any election,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to be able to have a life based in Tampa together.\u201d<\/p>\n Tomkow, who is term-limited in the Florida House, plans to resign from her state House seat after the legislative session, which ended Friday.<\/p>\n The Florida Constitution requires state senators to be residents of their district upon assuming office. They assume office immediately after being elected.<\/p>\n Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in District 14 by more than 22,000, a gap that has only grown since 2024. Out of 300,000 active registered voters, around 80,000 have no party affiliation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Hillsborough voters will begin deciding Saturday who they want to take Lt. Gov. Jay Collins\u2019 old state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[27211,89303,13396,89301,27213,89304,4214,585,89302,135,137,136,89305],"class_list":["post-191378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-brian-nathan","tag-democratic-union-leader","tag-election-day","tag-elections-northwest-regional-office","tag-josie-tomkow","tag-north-tampa-branch-library","tag-senate","tag-south-tampa","tag-state-house-district","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-western-hillsborough"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}