The Candidate
MEET ADAM
Get To Know Adam!
Adam is a business owner and candidate for Congress to fill the vacant seat in Florida's 3rd district. Born in Olathe, Kansas, Adam was raised in Palm Harbor, Florida pre-recession before moving to Indiana, where his father got a job for Eli-Lilly. Following his graduation from high school, he attended and graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia as a 3-sport athlete with a degree in Biology.
Following college, Adam decided to move back to Florida and started his first company with $3,000 in his pocket. Two years later he and his business partners started a second company in Gainesville, Fl which they recently sold. Having grown up a republican in a deep red state, he saw first-hand what can happen to communities hit hardest by financial greed. Rising drug costs, the opioid epidemic, and the housing crises affected every part of the state.
Learn More About Adam!
Another formative experience happened after being mistakenly arrested in Central Florida while coaching a high school soccer game. During this experience, he saw firsthand the harm that over-policing, private prisons, and the predatory cash bail industry do to our communities. This experience helped him form the belief that systems that are designed to prey on the poor and middle class should not exist in a just or moral society, and that the greed of these systems is what has caused the majority of the issues and hurt that we have today in Central Florida.
Adam currently lives in Gainesville Fl, with his pomsky puppy Pummel. He is ready to be a champion for the working class as a member of Congress.
Nicotine Products
Between 2017 and 2018, electronic cigarette use by high school students almost doubled from 12% to 21%.
Protecting our Children
Juul’s marketing campaigns, including social media posts, advertisements, and emails, were exploitive and youth-oriented.
This led to a large jump in youth addiction.
E-Cigarettes
What We Can Do:
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Pursue legal action against young-centered marketing practices
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Stop the push of disinformation
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Protect children from addiction
The children of Florida are the victims of a ruthless campaign by e-cigarette manufacturers. It is crucial to highlight the harmful impacts of e-cigarettes, or “vapes,” while also recognizing they are a useful tool for adults in curbing addictions to cigarettes and other harmful products. An all-encompassing ban on electronic cigarettes would be counterproductive to the goals of public health because many Floridians utilize them as an alternative to smoking cigarettes, a practice that is exponentially more harmful than vapes.[1]
While this view is shared across the aisle, most Republicans discount the calculated and purposeful propaganda perpetrated by the e-cigarette industry against our children who are especially susceptible to addiction and harmful effects. Multi-billion dollar e-cigarette corporations are also drawing striking similarities to “Big Tobacco” campaigns from the previous century. A variety of corporations form research subsidiaries, such as JLI Science, that receive funding from and report directly to electronic cigarette manufacturers. They utilize this so-called “research” in order to push disinformation and negate evidence-driven science that reveals the truth behind vaping and the long-term effects of electronic cigarette use.[2] The position of Agriculture Commissioner holds the power under the Florida Statutes to legally pursue these industries, and specifically to intervene in their immoral mass-marketing crusade targeted towards Florida youth.
[1] https://news.yale.edu/2021/05/25/ban-flavored-vaping-may-have-led-teens-cigarettes-study-suggests
[2] https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/the-problem-with-industry-sponsored-vaping-research/
Education
So, What Can We Do?!
The Commissioner of Agriculture can take legal action against the youth-centered marketing practices of electronic cigarette manufacturers under Section 570.07, which allows for the Commissioner of Agriculture to initiate legal proceedings against any company producing goods that have or will negatively impact the public health, safety, or welfare of Floridians.[1] In order to put an end to disinformation and the manipulation of Florida consumers through industry-funded research, JR will again seek legal action by utilizing Florida statute 501.204, in which practices such as “Unfair methods of competition, unconscionable acts or practices, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce…” have been deemed unlawful.[2] Past commissioners have ignored the dangers that electronic cigarettes pose to Florida’s youth, relying on a recent minimum age restriction that is entirely unenforceable and has not stopped the surge in nicotine consumption by children.
[1] http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=
0500-0599/0570/Sections/0570.07.htm