US House, District 18

Franklin: The three concerns I hear most often from people across our district are cost of living, the rising cost of housing and insurance, and the polarization dividing our country.

First, Floridians are feeling the pressure of higher prices. Groceries, utilities and other everyday expenses take a bigger bite out of family budgets than they did just a few years ago. In Congress, our job is to focus on policies that keep taxes low, reduce unnecessary costs and create conditions that allow our economy and wages to grow. A big part of that was the Working Families Tax Cut bill we passed, which permanently locked in lower tax rates for ALL Americans, but we have more to do.

Second, housing affordability is a serious challenge in Florida. Home prices, rents and insurance costs have risen dramatically, making it harder for young families to buy their first home and for seniors to afford to stay in theirs. While many of the factors driving housing and insurance costs are addressed at the state and local level, Congress has a role to play. That’s why we passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing law, the most significant federal housing affordability effort in decades. It focuses on increasing housing supply, cutting regulatory barriers that drive up construction costs, expanding access to housing in communities where demand is outpacing supply, and creating more pathways to homeownership. There is no single solution to Florida’s affordability challenge, but increasing the supply of homes is an important part of bringing costs under control.

Finally, I hear from people who are simply tired of how divided our country has become. We often disagree on solutions to important issues, and that is part of living in a free country. But disagreement does not have to mean treating each other as enemies. My approach is to look for areas where we can work together without compromising the principles I was elected to uphold. People want government to solve problems, not add to the noise. We could use a lot more of that approach in Congress and across the country.

Gibson: The working families, retirees, and small business owners of District 18 face unprecedented economic pressures that career politicians in D.C. continually ignore. Based on thousands of conversations across Polk and Osceola counties, my top three priorities are:

1. Skyrocketing Property Insurance & Housing Costs:

Florida’s property insurance crisis is destroying household budgets and driving up mortgages and rent. As a former Geico complex claims examiner and commercial property manager, I understand the industry mechanics. On the House Financial Services Committee, I will fight to establish a Federal Catastrophic Reinsurance Backstop. By providing a federal safety net for extreme weather events, we can lower private reinsurance costs and directly drive down home and commercial property insurance rates for Floridians.

2. Federal Infrastructure Funding for Booming Growth:

Rapid growth in communities like Poinciana, Haines City, Davenport, and Kissimmee has outpaced local infrastructure. I will utilize Community Project Funding (direct congressional earmarks) to send federal transportation and water utility grants straight to our municipal city halls and county commissions—bypassing state gridlock to widen two-lane bottlenecks, upgrade traffic systems, and protect our drinking water.

3. Lowering Costs & Protecting Earned Benefits:

Working-class families are squeezed by everyday inflation. I will vote NO on any attempt to cut or privatize Social Security and Medicare, or raise the retirement age. I support expanding Medicare price negotiations to cap out-of-pocket prescription drug costs, closing corporate tax loopholes, and stopping Wall Street hedge funds from buying up single-family starter homes.

Simmons: Quality Education: We must invest in quality K–12 public education, competitive teacher pay, classroom resources, and the support staff students and educators need to succeed.

Economic Stability & Equality: We need an economy that works for all. It starts with the basics—making housing, groceries, gas, utilities, and healthcare more affordable.

Affordable Healthcare: Healthcare should not be a luxury. Every Floridian deserves affordable, accessible, quality healthcare.

Franklin: “Food security is national security” isn’t a cliché or slogan. America cannot afford to become dependent on other countries for something as fundamental as feeding our own people. My focus in Congress is keeping American agriculture strong and competitive. That means reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens, ensuring farmers have access to a reliable workforce, opening markets for American products and addressing vulnerabilities in the supply chains for fertilizer, fuel and other critical inputs. We also need effective risk-management and disaster programs, so hurricanes, freezes, drought or other major events don’t wipe out years of investment overnight.

We have seen these challenges firsthand in Florida. Our citrus and specialty crop growers have endured hurricanes, disease and devastating freezes, while farmers across the country face rising input costs and increasingly tight margins. I’ve worked to improve disaster assistance and address supply-chain problems that drive up the cost of producing food.

We must also protect American agricultural land and our food supply from strategic competitors like China. Allowing adversaries to gain control over critical pieces of our agricultural system creates economic and national security risks we must take seriously.

Farmers and ranchers don’t need federal bureaucrats micromanaging their businesses. They need a government that understands the challenges they face and gives them a fair opportunity to compete, produce, and pass their operations on to the next generation. Keeping American agriculture strong is essential to keeping America secure.

Gibson: As a lifelong Polk County resident, I know that agriculture is the backbone of Florida’s economy and national security. Protecting our food supply requires defending our local growers from unfair foreign trade practices and skyrocketing input costs.

Congress must strengthen the Farm Bill to provide robust crop insurance programs, modernize disaster relief frameworks, and fund research into citrus greening and pest management. We must reform agricultural visa programs (H-2A) to ensure local citrus growers and ranchers have access to a reliable, legal workforce while protecting fair labor standards.

To support local viability, I will advocate for direct federal grants that help small and mid-sized agricultural producers invest in water-efficient irrigation technology to protect the Floridan Aquifer. Additionally, Congress must enforce stricter antitrust regulations on mega-conglomerate meatpackers and agricultural distributors to ensure our local farmers receive a fair price for their livestock and produce, keeping local food systems resilient and affordable for consumers.

Simmons: I’ll fight for a well-funded bipartisan farm bill that supports staple and specialty crops, conservation, and rural development. I’ll push for fair pricing, better crop insurance access, and local infrastructure investment so our farmers and ranchers can compete and thrive. Protecting the land protects our food supply. Food security starts at home—right here in Polk County, where farmers and ranchers are the backbone of our economy. This isn’t about party lines, it’s about doing what’s right.

Franklin: There is an important role for a safety net that protects Americans who need help, while encouraging work, independence and opportunity for those who are able. Social Security is a promise we made to Americans who spent their working lives paying into the system. We have a duty to protect it for current retirees and those approaching retirement while also ensuring the program remains sustainable for future generations.

Programs like SNAP also serve an important purpose for families facing difficult circumstances. At the same time, we owe taxpayers and the people who depend on these programs a system that works as intended. I support strong safeguards against fraud and abuse, appropriate work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents, and policies that help people move from government assistance toward greater self-sufficiency. A safety net should be there when people fall on hard times but should not become an inhibitor to getting back on their feet.

Gibson: Yes, unequivocally. Social Security, Medicare, SNAP, and minimum wage protections are essential commitments to American workers, seniors, and families.

Having worked as a school custodian, mail carrier, and warehouse worker, I know that these programs are not “handouts”, Social Security and Medicare are earned benefits paid for with a lifetime of hard work. I will fiercely defend Social Security against any proposals to cut benefits, privatize funds, or raise the retirement age. To keep the trust funds solvent, we must ensure high earners and corporate wealth pay their fair share into payroll taxes.

I fully support protecting a living wage so that no Floridian working 40 hours a week lives in poverty. Programs like SNAP are vital for ensuring children, veterans, and low-income seniors do not go hungry during tough economic times. A strong social safety net stabilizes local economies and lifts working families into financial independence.

Simmons: Yes, I support a strong social safety net—Social Security, fair minimum wage protections, and SNAP are lifelines for hardworking Floridians and Americans. I’ll fight to protect and strengthen them while demanding real guardrails against waste, fraud, and corruption. Floridians deserve a government that helps them thrive—not one that lets bad actors drain the resources meant to lift people up. That’s not about party lines, it’s about doing right by the people we serve.

Franklin: Yes. I am a cosponsor of a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress. Public service should be exactly that: service. Congress was never intended to become a permanent career. Our government benefits when new people, ideas and experiences regularly enter the legislative process. Term limits would help reduce the advantages of incumbency, encourage greater accountability and make it harder for members to become more focused on preserving their positions than doing the work they were elected to do.

I spent most of my career outside of elected office, serving in the Navy and building businesses in my community. Congress is stronger when more members bring that kind of real-world experience to the job, serve for a period of time and then return to the communities they represent. That’s why I support congressional term limits and will continue to support a constitutional amendment to establish them.

Gibson:Yes, I support congressional term limits.

Washington was designed for citizen-legislators who bring real-world experience to government, serve their communities, and return home. Instead, it has turned into a career enterprise dominated by political insiders who spend decades accumulating influence, taking corporate PAC money, and trading stocks based on insider information.

Establishing reasonable term limits (such as 12 years total in the House) would break the grip of careerism, encourage fresh ideas, and force representatives to focus on solving problems for Main Street rather than focusing on their next election cycle. In addition to term limits, I support a complete ban on members of Congress trading individual stocks and strict lobbying bans for former members to restore integrity to public service.

Simmons: Absolutely. I support term limits for all branches of government. The executive branch already has a two-term limit—why should Congress or the courts be any different? In my opinion, no one should hold a lifetime appointment or treat public office as a career. Term limits keep public servants honest, from accumulating unnecessary wealth or holding onto too much power. Congress works for the American people, not the other way around.

Franklin: Our national debt is the most serious threat to our children’s future and our long-term national strength. We did not accumulate this debt overnight and can’t eliminate it overnight. But we cannot afford to wait to begin addressing it.

Getting our fiscal house in order will require sustained discipline over many years. We must restrain the growth of federal spending, strengthen economic growth, eliminate waste and fraud, and confront the long-term structural drivers of our debt. There are no painless solutions, and anyone suggesting otherwise misrepresents the scope of the challenge.

Congress and presidents of both parties continue to avoid the difficult choices necessary to put us on a sustainable path. The State of Florida and City of Lakeland have statutory requirements to propose and adopt balanced budgets every year. It’s the only reason their budgets don’t run deficits. I’m convinced from my service as a Lakeland City Commissioner we would not have had the fiscal discipline to make tough choices with scarce resources if it was optional – and that was a commission generally acknowledged as fiscally conservative. It’s why I’m a cosponsor of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. We need a forcing mechanism that requires Congress and the president to sit down together, establish priorities and do the hard work necessary to restore fiscal sanity. Without one, history tells us it is too easy to postpone difficult decisions and pass the consequences on to the next generation.

I am willing to work with anyone, Republican or Democrat, serious about solving this problem. We may disagree about individual policies or how we get there, but neither party can address a challenge of this magnitude alone.

Every year we wait, the debt grows, interest consumes more of the federal budget, and our options become more difficult. We owe our children and grandchildren better than that. The time to begin putting our country back on a sustainable fiscal path is now.

Gibson: Balancing the federal budget requires fiscal responsibility, prioritizing Main Street over corporate giveaways, and a willingness to engage in practical bipartisan negotiations.

To address the deficit, we must stop writing blank checks for unfunded corporate tax cuts and military contractor overruns. We can generate significant revenue by rolling back tax breaks for mega-corporations, capping prescription drug costs under federal healthcare programs, and auditing federal agencies to eliminate administrative waste.

Yes, I am fully willing to work across the aisle to pass a responsible, balanced budget. As a former City Commissioner and commercial property manager, I’ve managed budgets in the real world where you must balance the books without cutting vital services. Bipartisanship is not about compromising your principles; it is about finding common ground to protect working families, keep our economy stable, and ensure future generations are not saddled with unsustainable national debt.

Simmons: I’ll push to remove the Social Security Payroll Tax Cap and close loopholes that let billionaires and large corporations avoid paying their fair share. As an NPA candidate, I’m not beholden to party lines, I’m committed to people and working across the aisle. Balancing the budget takes everyone working together and a willingness to compromise. We need real solutions, not gridlock. That’s the only way to get things done and move the country forward.