Adam Gentle suspends U.S. House race to run for Florida House

Miami, FL – Adam Gentle, Democratic candidate for Florida’s 25th Congressional District, is withdrawing his Congressional bid. 

Gentle has decided to suspend his campaign to oust Republican incumbent Mario Diaz Balart next year and instead has announced his candidacy for Florida House District 120 which includes the Florida Keys and South Dade. 

“When I launched my campaign for Congress, it was to give Floridians a voice in Washington that listens and tells the truth, representation that upholds our Constitution. But after traveling extensively and meeting people of all backgrounds in South Florida, I realized that lawmakers aren’t only ignoring us in Washington, they’re also not listening right here in Florida,” Gentle said.  

In November 2020, Key West voters voted to limit the number of passengers who can disembark in a day, ban large ships from docking, and prioritize ships with better health records. Less than six months later, Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee overturned the vote by Key West residents restricting cruise ship operations. This came on the heels of a nearly $1 million donation to Gov. Ron DeSantis political committee by a business developer who operates the Key West pier, which gets most of the city’s cruise ship traffic. 

“Rather than represent our community’s interests in Tallahassee, Republican lawmakers have been rubbing elbows with special interests and have silenced their vote on local issues. As an anti-corruption lawyer, I have spent my legal career investigating and rooting out corruption and I’ll go head-to-head with the corrupt players in Florida politics,” Gentle said.   

“I’m thrilled to see Adam getting into this race,” former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel Powell said. “It is important that our community has representation in Tallahassee who will put partisanship aside and work to protect our environment and preserve the principle of home rule not just in the Keys but across our state.”

Originally from Michigan, Gentle studied at Columbia University in New York and attended George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. He previously lived in Los Angeles, where he worked with charitable organizations like The Young Americans, an organization that promotes “understanding and goodwill among people throughout the world” through the performing arts. As an attorney, Gentle represented tenants facing unjust evictions and worked to uncover corporate corruption. 

“I’m running to fight for our local business owners, veterans, our environment and anybody trying to get ahead,” Gentle said in a statement. “Jim Mooney has failed to effectively fight for our interests, casually tossed out our constitutional right to make local decisions, folded as his colleagues disregarded our vote, and worked to make it harder to vote – I believe we can and must do better.”

Representative Jim Mooney supported legislation to restrict a voters’ ability to get a mail-in ballot, limited early voting locations, and prohibited volunteers from providing water to voters waiting in long lines in the Florida sun.

Gentle has raised over $90,000 in campaign contributions to his federal account and will be transferring remaining funds to a PAC, which is supporting his Florida House bid. Florida is currently in the redistricting process, the boundaries of Florida House District 120 may change and final maps will be released during the upcoming 2022 legislative session.  

Gentle lives on Big Coppitt Key with his husband Matheus and his dog Oliver.

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]