Background
I was at a market where I had set up my campaign table. There, I met a man and made enough of an impression on him that he decided to follow up with an email. In the email, he asked me a few more questions. I don’t get a ton of email correspondence but in this case I felt like others would be able to get to know me better if they could read our conversation. So I asked his permission to publish this. Our conversation went as follows. I will simply refer to him as Jeff.
Emails
Jeff:
Hello Mr. Hacker, I spoke with you midday today at the Starkey market. I’m the one who made the comment about repealing the 18th amendment which you corrected to the 17th. I had walked over intending to ask an additional question, but got sidetracked when my wife came up wanting to leave. Who are you running against? And what would make you different in this office if you were to win it? We are new to Florida – been here about 14 months now. So we’re only superficially familiar with the political personalities we’ll be choosing between. I will be an election worker in these next two elections – I volunteered and just went through the training for Pasco County. I’ve never done it before. Should be interesting.
Regards,
— Jeff
Me:
Hi Jeff,
Thank you for following up with me. It was a pleasure to meet you, and I’d like to welcome you and your wife to the neighborhood!
To answer your question, I am running for Florida House District 55. This is my second time running for this office. The first time, I ran against Kevin Steele, the incumbent now but was a newcomer in 2022, in the general election and received 22% of the vote. Kevin Steele is currently the legislator with the highest net worth in the entire Florida Legislature. As far as I can tell, his victory was largely due to having the Republican label next to his name..
This time, I am running against him again, and there is also a Democrat on the ballot. According to her qualifying papers, she is not from our county and actually lives in Naples, a practice often referred to as district shopping or carpetbagging.
What makes me different is my unwavering commitment to my principles. I strongly believe in the right to life for the preborn and that the right to bear arms shall not be infringed. These are issues where I feel the Republican stance has weakened, but I remain steadfast. Additionally, I am committed to our state’s sovereignty, advocating for our right to govern our own affairs rather than relying on a central government authority.
Lastly, I want to express my gratitude for your willingness to be an election worker. I’m sure you’ll find the experience both interesting and rewarding.
Thank you once again for reaching out. If you have any more questions or need further information, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Best regards,
CJ Hacker
Jeff:
Hi CJ,
Thank you for the reply. A couple other questions occurred to me that perhaps you could answer.
- What votes has your opponent, Kevin Steele, cast in Congress which you would have cast differently? And why?
- If you were to write a single piece of legislation as a Congressman
in Florida, what would it be?
Regards,
— Jeff
Me:
Hi Jeff,
Sorry for the delay. Here are my answers to your two questions. I would like to remind you that I am not running for “Congress”; I am running for State Legislator in the Florida House of Representatives. I wanted to make that clear, but I will answer your questions as they were asked.
What votes has your opponent, Kevin Steele, cast in Congress that you would have cast differently, and why?
There are a couple of key votes where I would have taken a different stance than Kevin Steele.
First, I would not have voted to change the “resign to run” law to allow Governor DeSantis to run for the presidency without resigning his position as governor. I was upset at the idea of the Governor abandoning his post. This country would benefit more from having 49 other governors like Ron DeSantis than from having him as president.
Second, I would not have voted to change the residency requirements for school board candidates. Previously, candidates had to live in their respective districts, which is no longer the case.
Both of these rule changes serve the political interests of those in power by either allowing a governor to run for president without resigning or enabling political outsiders to run for office in districts they don’t reside in.
Another significant difference between me and my competition is that I do not believe in incrementalism.
For instance, the so-called “constitutional carry” bill passed last year was not true constitutional carry. True constitutional carry would allow anyone to carry openly without a permit. Instead, they gave us permit-less concealed carry but sold it as constitutional carry. I would not have voted for the “fake constitutional carry bill” out of principle.
Another example is the six-week abortion ban. I am disgusted by the idea of any law that legalizes the murder of innocents. Whether it’s a three, six, nine, or eighteen-week ban, they all fail to stop the madness of killing babies in the womb. These are “pro-life” bills; I am not pro-life, I am an abolitionist, and I cannot, in good conscience, vote for anything that authorizes abortion.
If you were to write a single piece of legislation as a Congressman in Florida, what would it be?
My first bill would depend on the outcome of the general election. If Amendment 4 passes, my first act would be to file a bill to repeal it. If it doesn’t pass, my priority would be to file a bill abolishing abortion.
A common complaint I have heard among conservative folks is that their representatives have been less than conservative. I will stand by my principles and even go so far as to vote against incremental bills that give conservatives like me less than what we want.
I hope these examples clearly illustrate where my principles stand.
CJ Hacker
Jeff:
Thanks for the answers. I like your straight-forwardness. Thinking about writing you in this election. I did know you were running for a State Legislator position. I thought the body they served in was also called a “Congress”, only at a state level. And that State Senators serve in a State Senate. Sounds like that is incorrect. I’ll use the expression “State Legislature” after this.
— Jeff
Me:
Hi Jeff,
This is your reminder to to write my name down (CJ Hacker) for Florida House District 55.
Would you mind if I compiled our correspondence to a single document and shared it either on my website or social media? If you allow it I would take your personal information out and only refer to you as “Jeff”. I really feel like people could benefit from reading our conversation.
CJ Hacker
Jeff:
Yes, you can use our correspondence on your website so long as you
take out my contact information and last name.
Good luck.
— Jeff