{"id":204556,"date":"2026-03-24T22:15:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204556\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T22:15:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:15:23","slug":"voters-in-tampa-discuss-their-mood-on-issues-like-iran-and-ice-and-its-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204556\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters in Tampa discuss their mood on issues like Iran and ICE \u2014 and it\u2019s dark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talking directly to voters illuminates political reporting. You get to bypass those who usually tell us what voters are thinking \u2014 politicians, academics or pollsters \u2014 and go directly to the source.<\/p>\n

So Tuesday\u2019s special election in state Senate District 14 in Tampa was a chance to gauge the mood.<\/p>\n

We asked each voter about the issues of the day.<\/p>\n

The responses were dark. Across the political spectrum of the dozen voters who spoke with the Tampa Bay Times, hope, change and freedom were not words that were uttered.<\/p>\n

Each Democrat I spoke with refused to give their name out of fear that their views would be held against them in job searches or by their current employers. Republicans feared Democrats were primed to take over and start prosecuting their enemies.<\/p>\n

One young voter with no party affiliation said enough was enough and that violence was in the air.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with him first of those who provided their names.<\/p>\n

Nick Smith, 27\"\"<\/p>\n

Party: No party affiliation<\/p>\n

Occupation: Owns IT company<\/p>\n

How should AI data centers be regulated, if at all? They should be banned. We don\u2019t understand the technology. Too much too soon could be wasted in a few years, so let\u2019s hold off in approving data centers everywhere.<\/p>\n

Should lawmakers eliminate property taxes to help make homes more affordable? Long-term, that may not be the best solution. Property taxes account for a lot of our funding. It\u2019s robbing Peter to pay Paul.<\/p>\n

Do you approve of how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is deporting immigrants? I\u2019m not seeing ICE enforcement here, so I don\u2019t have an opinion.<\/p>\n

Do you support the war with Iran? The majority of people my age do not support this war. I don\u2019t see any scenario where the U.S. comes out of this better off. There\u2019s a looming sense of dread that my friends and I have about this war. We can\u2019t afford homes now, and you\u2019re asking us to fight a war in the Middle East?<\/p>\n

Do you like the way President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has handled the Jeffrey Epstein case? That\u2019s connected to everything. My age group believes that everyone in charge is out to get us. Young people are looking for an excuse to go crazy, and that\u2019s why we think they\u2019re withholding the Epstein files. There\u2019s a lot of anger out there over this. We\u2019re closer to violence than people realize.<\/p>\n

Paul Gaurino, 69\"\"<\/p>\n

Party: Republican<\/p>\n

Occupation: Flooring company<\/p>\n

How should AI data centers be regulated, if at all? No opinion.<\/p>\n

Should lawmakers eliminate property taxes to help make homes more affordable? I don\u2019t know how they would do this. Where would the money come from?<\/p>\n

Do you approve of how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is deporting immigrants? They\u2019re doing a great job. Things are always going to go wrong when you tackle something that big. I\u2019m not against immigration, but I am for safe borders. We let in people with criminal records for too long.<\/p>\n

Do you support the war with Iran? I support it. It\u2019s a deterrent for what\u2019s to come. Gas prices will come back down.<\/p>\n

Do you like the way President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has handled the Jeffrey Epstein case? The Democrats had the file for a long time and they didn\u2019t release it. I don\u2019t have a problem with how Trump has handled it.<\/p>\n

Robert Lambert, 64\"\"<\/p>\n

Party: Republican<\/p>\n

Occupation: Process server<\/p>\n

How should AI data centers be regulated, if at all? Get as many of them as you can. They bring great jobs and they\u2019re great for taxes.<\/p>\n

Should lawmakers eliminate property taxes to help make homes more affordable? They won\u2019t eliminate them. They\u2019ll meet somewhere in the middle, which is fine.<\/p>\n

Do you approve of how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is deporting immigrants? We brought in felons with open borders. You can\u2019t argue with the results of what ICE has done. Sanctuary cities were a problem.<\/p>\n

Do you support the war with Iran? We should have done this 40 years ago. Iran with nuclear weapons would be a disaster for the world. Gas prices are a short-term thing. Long term? Things will return to normal.<\/p>\n

Do you like the way President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has handled the Jeffrey Epstein case? I don\u2019t know if Trump has gotten all the information he needs about this. There\u2019s still some powerful people in charge who are deciding what he sees.<\/p>\n

Laura Bozant, 72\"\"<\/p>\n

Party: No party affiliation<\/p>\n

Occupation: Retired, Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/p>\n

How should AI data centers be regulated, if at all? AI is a little scary. I don\u2019t trust it.<\/p>\n

Should lawmakers eliminate property taxes to help make homes more affordable? How are you going to pay law enforcement and fire if you get rid of property taxes? No way this can work.<\/p>\n

Do you approve of how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is deporting immigrants? ICE is totally out of line. They\u2019re making illegal stops. (Polk County Sheriff) Grady Judd was right.<\/a> Go to where they\u2019re committing crimes. Don\u2019t go to where people are making a living.<\/p>\n

Do you support the war with Iran? It\u2019s a distraction from the Epstein files. If Trump can take our minds off the Epstein files, he\u2019s happy.<\/p>\n

Do you like the way President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has handled the Jeffrey Epstein case? Trump\u2019s name is all over those files, and he\u2019s going to deny that he was involved.<\/p>\n

Anitha Thomas, 58\"\"<\/p>\n

Party: No party affiliation<\/p>\n

Occupation: Business owner, retired<\/p>\n

How should AI data centers be regulated, if at all? These centers are a bad thing for Florida.<\/p>\n

Should lawmakers eliminate property taxes to help make homes more affordable? I believe in property taxes. It provides important services. I\u2019m against this.<\/p>\n

Do you approve of how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is deporting immigrants? This is why I\u2019m not a Republican anymore. This is not a good thing for our country.<\/p>\n

Do you support the war with Iran? This is a bad idea. I\u2019m from India. This just feels like the U.S. isn\u2019t respecting other religions.<\/p>\n

Do you like the way President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has handled the Jeffrey Epstein case? I don\u2019t get into this issue that much, but it seems like the Republicans are very anti-woman with this issue and abortion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talking directly to voters illuminates political reporting. You get to bypass those who usually tell us what voters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[52520,11611,9450,44338,6688,7074,135,137,136,93985],"class_list":["post-204556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-data-centers","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-party-affiliation","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-property-taxes","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-war-with-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204556","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=204556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}