1. Why are you running?

I am running because I believe I have a duty to stand up when I see injustice, when I see failure, and protect. Florida has been run by a series of increasingly worse leaders in one party since I was born here. I have watched the young, and the elderly- anyone who cannot work an aerospace job- slowly lose their standard of living bill by bill, choice by choice. I am tired of watching my state government rob Peter to pay Paul. Doubly so when I know it’s my future children who will have to foot the ultimate bill.

I have worked here my entire life. I’ve framed houses in this district, worked on healthcare facilities and hospitals during COVID here, gotten married here, bought a home here, lost everything here- and built back a life with my own sweat I can be proud of. Brevard County- Cocoa more specifically- has been my entire life. I know this place, this district, the way you only can when you’ve actually lived the hard parts of it.

To see my home failed repeatedly by leaders who will not defend us. By leaders who have never set foot in our communities- who don’t understand what a K shaped economy is. Forty-three percent of households here can’t afford the basics. We’re a federally designated shortage area for all doctors — primary, specialists, mental, and dental. Our unique ecology in the lagoon has lost more than half its seagrass since 2009- and we had to fix it locally without anything more than token help- and even now bills are proposed to stop us from healing our environment at the local level constantly. Tallahassee, for 28 years, has used its power to silence the local people, and local leaders closest to us. The best decision for you, is one made as close to you as possible.

I’m not a politician, not pedigreed, I’m the son of a nurse and an electrician.
I decided to run because I have a speech- and people started asking me to run. Telling me I was the one for the moment. I tried to find reasons not to do it. I asked other candidate hopefuls, I worked with the party to try and step back, I asked everyone who knows anything about what it is like to run as a Democrat in Brevard if I was crazy. If I should just let this go and move on.

But nobody else stood up. . . and I couldn’t help but hear in my head over and over.

“Here I am, send me, I will go”

I do not think my opponents understand what true leadership means.
I don’t see anyone running who represents the leadership qualities Brevard needs. |
Quiet, competent, focused on the people and problems who are here.
Instead they perform outrage, and spotlight themselves.
Leadership is an act of service.
Leadership is an act of sacrifice.

It is my duty to stand up for my home, for the people I live, when no one else of character will

2. What are your top three priorities if elected?

My top three priorities are cost of living, healthcare access, and home rule.

First, lowering the cost of living: The biggest lever available in Tallahassee is insurance reform. More than three out of four households in Brevard own their homes. When premiums spike it hits almost everyone directly. And it does hit everyone indirectly even if you’re a renters or condo owner.

The policy vehicles already exist, and the right reforms could cut premiums as much as 60 percent. That’s thousands back in everyone’s pockets without anything but a few smart policy tweaks. I know that alone isn’t enough. I will fight for, sponsor, and vote for any policy that puts money back in your pockets without damaging our future.

Second, healthcare access: North Brevard doesn’t have enough doctors, hospital beds, or transport capacity. The federal government formally classifies us as medically underserved — short on primary care, specialist care, mental health, and dental care. That’s not just my observation. The Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) determined that. The good news is HRSA’s designations are the key to fixing it. They unlock real recruiting tools: loan repayment to bring doctors and dentists here, visa waivers to keep physicians serving our area, and funding for community health centers. The only thing we lack is a leader willing to work the system as built to get those care and resources here.

My stance is simple. We should have hospitals and doctors here, not hour-long car rides somewhere else. I’ll work those designation, fund residency slots so we grow our own doctors, and expand Medicaid so we can get more of the money in taxes we have already paid working for us. The time for political stunts is over. We paid for care, we should have it. It is the right and fiscally responsible thing to do.

Third, home rule: Your city and county officials can’t pass common-sense ordinances without the threat of Tallahassee’s reprisal or a corporate lawsuit. The way the current system is structured, corporations can see cities that impact their bottom line in any way. Cities and counties cannot govern responsibly when it is so easy for them to be sued. Communities cannot self regulate when corporations can come and take money from every single community member for doing so!

We saw it when the state moved to override the Indian River Lagoon fertilizer protections our own communities fought for, and when small towns like Cape Canaveral lost the ability to manage short-term rentals, eating up nearly 10 percent of their housing. The people closest to a problem should be the ones who solve it. That’s how you know you have a voice on what matters.

I’m running to bring the government back home. Where your local leaders answer to you, and your voice can be heard.

3. What is the single biggest problem facing the people this office serves, and how would you address it?

The single biggest problem in District 31 is the cost of living.

Working people here are doing everything right and still falling behind.
43 percent of households — more than 33,000 families — don’t earn enough to afford the basics in Brevard. We have been stuck there for fifteen straight years- since the shuttle program ended. Only about 10 percent of households here get any assistance. A clear example the people working the hardest are falling through the cracks.

Here’s what I would do about it.
Insurance reform is the biggest lever. Three of four Brevard households own their homes, so cutting premiums 40-60% puts money back in everyone’s pocket.

Fix benefits cliffs. No one should lose their benefits because of a 50 cent raise. The system is not built to support people working out of poverty. It’s designed to trap them on the edge of a cliff. Graduated phase-outs and a gentle slope of benefits vs a cliff is the only way.
Working more should never leave you worse off.

The Sadowski trust fund for affordable housing construction was established in 1992.
Since 1998 when republicans won leadership of our state it has been raided for the general fund every year. Voters decided to build more housing and we should do that. Trust funds should be protected for their actual purpose- If we hadn’t raided the Sadowski trust we would have 110k-250k more housing units in the state. Our housing crisis is artificial.

The Public Service Commission the is supposed to regulate power companies in our state is a sockpuppet for power company executives. It needs to be scrubbed so it can do its job. Electricity in Florida is the most expensive electricity in the nation bar none. Utility bills jumped as much as 86 percent in five years while power companies posted record profits.

Lower healthcare costs through Medicaid expansion and real price transparency, so we stop shifting the cost of the uninsured onto everyone else’s premiums. Medicaid expansion is something we already paid for and like a kid with broccoli we refused the federal money that was coming back to us, stupid and shameful on the part of our leaders. There is a reason our local hospitals don’t have the funding to renovate their old buildings and have to close.
Insurance companies should not be able to own hospitals. When the person paying for treatment sets the price and the profit of that treatment we all lose except for the insurance company.
Ethical healthcare business management is the bare minimum. It’s not just the financially prudent choice- it’s the morally correct one.

Even if not listed here; I’ll fight for any relief that actually reaches average people. I won’t sell our schools, roads, infrastructure, and emergency services to do it.

4. How will you keep constituents informed and involved in your decisions?

Staying accessible is the whole reason I’m running the way I am, this matters to me.
My website has multiple ways to contact me on it for a reason. All of them come directly to me.

If I am elected I will hold quarterly town halls right in the heart of the district.
An in person open format where anyone can show up and be heard. Not a podium and a microphone I control, or a telephone “townhall” where people can listen but not ask questions on. A real back-and-forth where people can tell me what’s working and what isn’t. Where we can see each other and find solutions together.

I will also run a free newsletter to keep constituents informed on what’s happening in Tallahassee and the major issues facing the district. Something I write myself so people don’t need a lobbyist, a lawyer and a pastor to understand what their government is doing.

The format matters less than the posture. My goal is to be the most approachable, personable leader I can be. The kind of representative you can trust will call you back and ask questions about your concerns.

I believe leadership is about 80 percent listening and 20 percent decisive action. You can’t do the second part well if you skip the first. I’ve spent years showing up at people’s doors as a handyman when called. I don’t intend to stop once I’m in office. The job is to stay close to the people I answer to. To stay close to the people I care about.

5. Why are you a better choice than your opponents?

If I have said it once I have said it a thousand times: Leadership is about service.
I don’t know who I am going to be facing in this race. I won’t know until August 18th.
(Go vote!!)

What I do know, is that all of my potential opponents have decided that the nation can be run by a would-be tyrant and that is acceptable to them. They are okay with the state wielding the power to destroy, and persecute. They are okay excluding some people from public life for their comfort. They are okay forcing our children to bear the burden of their short sighted decision making.

They do not see that the power they wish to give the state is dangerous. The state should be limited in its power for all of our sakes.
Laws are promises that if you don’t obey the rules a man with a gun will make you obey.
That power is not something to be wielded lightly, flippantly, or based on the want to avoid hard conversation. Their weakness means our rights and freedoms hang by a thread.
We must protect them.

My opponents give lip service to the ideas of our constitution. To the ideas of our rights. They pick and choose who the constitution defends, and which articles and amendments defend who. They cling to one right, and ignore another.
I do not choose. I read the text and apply it as written. The constitution is shorter than some dinner menus! It is not hard to understand the rights it enshrines and who those rights protect! Everyone in our great country should be afforded that protection. If one of us has it taken from them we all have it taken from us.

When they, my opponents, ignore what parts of our constitution are convenient for them, they capitulate the foundational principles of our country. They build our house on the sand.

My opponents have blindly followed a creed, party, and leader that says one thing and does another. They have openly supported the unacceptable chaos of the modern age.

No one of true leadership quality can follow blindly.
A true leader is a follower that questions.
A true leader holds the leaders over them to account.
A true leader is the best kind of follower- because they see the full value of the leadership they are provided. And they understand that leadership is symbiotic, not parasitic.

My whole life I have struggled to find a faith tradition I feel is my own. But the principles of the faith I was raised with still guide my every choice and judgement.
“You will know them by their fruit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness”
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

I cannot see the fruit of my opponents lives. I do not trust them to protect and lead my community. I do not see them laying down their life for Cocoa, or Brevard, or Florida.

Their moral centers are constant talk of family. But if your family is the only group enriched by you being in office- you have failed to be anything but self interested and corrupt.

If one of my opponents could demonstrate a character of good leadership, good stewardship, a true understanding of what it means to lead- I would drop out of this race in a second. I would endorse them, and throw all of my weight behind their campaign.
I am happy to support a leader deserving of support.

But I know that they have not, and will not, demonstrate those qualities,
So I stand.

6. Is there anything in your record you’d like to address up front?

I grew up in the age of the internet. Nothing is ever really gone.
If the 13 year old version of me made a horribly spelled post about LEGOs on some long forgotten social media account I beg your grace.

As for an actual record. No, I have never even gotten a speeding ticket.

Anything else you’d like voters to know?

There is a debate on July 16th (tomorrow) at the veterans center on Merritt Island from 6-8PM. It is a nonpartisan event hosted by Community Advocacy for Merritt Island (CAMI)
Anyone curious about the race and the candidates should attend. I will be there and I won’t leave until everyone who wants to speak with me has had the chance.

There is a candidate form hosted by the Brevard County Republican Assembly at the Titusville Garden Club on July 18th (Saturday). I will be there for the portion of the event focused on my race. I won’t have nearly as much time to stay and talk as I have another event later that evening, but I would love it if people came and could make informed decisions on the kind of leaders running for office in their community.

A little more about me. . .

First: I am not going to be the kind of leader who runs around saying yes to everything.
My do-say ratio will be 100%- which means I will need to tell the truth always. Honesty, even when it’s not what you want to hear. I’ve told business groups I disagree with them to their faces. I’ve given long speeches to hold my own side accountable for their limp leadership and failure of principles. I will speak openly that I don’t believe in the culture war that’s consumed Tallahassee, the manufactured outrage- designed to keep you too afraid to live and act with freedom- designed to keep you from realizing that the real problems go unfixed.

I’d rather do the unglamorous, nuts-and-bolts work that actually makes your life cost less and work better. I don’t care if I make people angry. Fairness, hard work, and honesty are first.

Second: I mean it when I say I’ll show up. I’ll show up so much you’ll be sick of seeing me. I was trained to be the first one in and the last one out. As a handyman, a protest medic, an organizer, and a friend. I don’t intend to disappear to Tallahassee and resurface at election time. Quarterly town halls, a plain-language newsletter, a phone that gets answered, and a door that stays open. Cicirelli leadership listens.

Third: I lead from abundance, not fear. I believe there’s enough here for everyone. Enough opportunity, enough prosperity, enough room to be happy, healthy, and safe. That’s not naive. It’s a choice about how you govern. You can run a district by scaring people about their neighbors, or you can run it by fixing the roof, funding the clinic, and protecting the water. I’ll always choose the latter.

Finally: I’m not doing this because it’s a good career move. I’m well off enough I could put my head down, run my business, stay out of it, and be just fine.
My conscience, the duty we all have to make a better world for each other, won’t let me.
When no one of character stands up, someone has to.
This is my home. I want it to be a place I’d be proud to raise my own kids someday. Right now, it isn’t, and I know who is to blame.
I see the need, it’s time to fill it.

Campaign Links

• Website: cicirelliforflorida.com
• Email: cicirelliforflorida@proton.me
• Facebook: facebook.com/Cicirelli4FL
• Instagram: instagram.com/cicirelliforflorida
• X: x.com/Cicirelli_31
• TikTok: tiktok.com/@cicirelli.for.flo