The cousin who watches cable news. The aunt at Thanksgiving. The group text.

The facts

• County commissioners set property tax rates, the single largest line item in most household budgets in Pinellas.
• School boards decide curriculum, school start times, and which schools stay open.
• City councils decide rezoning, which determines whether your neighborhood gets a 7-story apartment or a parking lot.

One way to say it

You voted for governor in 2022. That person has never picked up your trash, paved your street, or written your kid's middle-school curriculum. The people who do those things are on the August 18 ballot, and most of those races will be decided by under 1,500 votes.

The facts

• Florida has run mail-in voting since 2002, expanded under Gov. Jeb Bush.
• Every mail-in ballot is signature-verified, with a 6-step chain of custody.
• The 2023 Heritage Foundation election-fraud database, often cited, contains 50 mail-ballot convictions in the entire US over a 20-year window.

One way to say it

Mail-in voting in Florida is run by Republican-appointed Supervisors of Elections in most counties — including ours. They've been doing it for over two decades. If it were insecure, they'd be the first ones to say so. They aren't.

The facts

• Pinellas County Commission roll-call votes are public; the average margin over the last 24 months is 4-3.
• Florida House votes published by Florida Politics show partisan splits on 73% of all 2024 floor votes.
• On any given Tuesday, the chair of the commission and a backbench commissioner cast 280 different votes.

One way to say it

Sure, they all wear suits. The votes are different. Look at the last 10 county-commission roll calls. Half were 4-3. The 4 and the 3 were the same people every time. They are not the same.

The facts

• The 2024 St. Petersburg City Council District 6 race was decided by 38 votes.
• The 2022 Pinellas County School Board Seat 4 race was decided by 144 votes.
• In 2026 there are 18 races on the August primary ballot in Pinellas. 11 of them in the last cycle were decided by fewer than 1,500 votes.

One way to say it

In 2024 a St. Petersburg city council seat was decided by 38 votes. Your one vote is worth about 1/38th of that election. If you bring two friends, that's 3/38ths — almost 8%. Bring your aunt and your kid's coach and you've moved 13% of the margin yourself.

The facts

• Roughly true at the federal level for campaign-finance reasons; less true at the local level where most candidates raise under $50,000.
• The Coalition's 22-question candidate questionnaire is published verbatim, including donor schedules.
• You can read the donor reports for every candidate at FollowTheMoney.org.

One way to say it

I agree with you that money is a problem in politics. That's why the Coalition publishes every candidate's donor list before every race. Have you looked at the donor reports for the candidates in your district? They tell you a lot.

The facts

• The 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by John Adams, explicitly states the United States was "not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
• The First Amendment's Establishment Clause was specifically drafted to prevent religious state establishment.
• Six of the first twelve presidents publicly identified as Deists or non-Trinitarian Christians.

One way to say it

You can be a Christian and still believe in religious freedom — those aren't in conflict. The founders were specifically careful about this; you can read it in the Treaty of Tripoli, which John Adams signed. The country was founded by people who fled state religion, not to install it.

The facts

• BLS data: foreign-born workers fill 18% of US jobs but cluster in two ends of the labor market (agriculture/service AND STEM), with relatively little overlap with native-born employment patterns.
• Florida's 2023 anti-immigration law (SB 1718) led to documented labor shortages in construction and agriculture across the state.
• Pinellas County's tourism workforce is roughly 28% foreign-born; layoffs there would close hotels and restaurants.

One way to say it

The construction sites in Pinellas slowed down a lot after SB 1718. Walk past any half-finished housing project on US-19 — that's the economy with fewer immigrants. The jobs they were doing didn't come back to anyone else; they just stopped getting done.

The facts

• Sea level in St. Petersburg has risen 9 inches since 1946 (NOAA tide gauge data, public).
• Pinellas County's 2024 Climate Resilience Plan estimates $4.2B in at-risk coastal property by 2050.
• Pinellas County, Pinellas Beach, and Tampa Bay all carry the highest FEMA flood-zone rating in the state.

One way to say it

The county already plans for it. The FEMA maps already reflect it. The 2024 county Resilience Plan estimates $4.2B in at-risk coastal property — that's a Republican-majority county commission writing that number down. You don't have to believe in it for it to flood your driveway.