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Debra Kaplan
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Debra Kaplan (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Florida House of Representatives to represent District 31. She lost in the Democratic primary on August 18, 2020.
Kaplan completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Kaplan (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Florida House of Representatives to represent District 31. She was defeated in the general election on November 6, 2018.
Biography
Debra Kaplan was born in Winsted, Connecticut. She earned an associate degree from Becker College in 1972. Kaplan's career experience includes working in business development lead generation.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Florida House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Florida House of Representatives District 31
Keith Truenow defeated Crissy Stile in the general election for Florida House of Representatives District 31 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Keith Truenow (R) | 59.7 | 58,311 |
 | Crissy Stile (D)  | 40.3 | 39,403 | |
| Total votes: 97,714 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Florida House of Representatives District 31
Crissy Stile defeated Debra Kaplan in the Democratic primary for Florida House of Representatives District 31 on August 18, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Crissy Stile | 54.9 | 6,623 |
 | Debra Kaplan | 45.1 | 5,451 | |
| Total votes: 12,074 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Florida House of Representatives District 31
Keith Truenow defeated Stevan Novakovic in the Republican primary for Florida House of Representatives District 31 on August 18, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Keith Truenow | 74.0 | 12,043 |
 | Stevan Novakovic | 26.0 | 4,229 | |
| Total votes: 16,272 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Randy Glisson (R)
- Jennifer Sullivan (R)
Campaign finance
2018
General election
General election for Florida House of Representatives District 31
Incumbent Jennifer Sullivan defeated Debra Kaplan in the general election for Florida House of Representatives District 31 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jennifer Sullivan (R) | 61.1 | 45,697 |
| Debra Kaplan (D) | 38.9 | 29,081 | |
| Total votes: 74,778 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Florida House of Representatives District 31
Debra Kaplan advanced from the Democratic primary for Florida House of Representatives District 31 on August 28, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Debra Kaplan |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Florida House of Representatives District 31
Incumbent Jennifer Sullivan advanced from the Republican primary for Florida House of Representatives District 31 on August 28, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Jennifer Sullivan |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Debra Kaplan completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kaplan's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am former reporter who covered politics, government, business criminal justice and the courts more 27 years. I have also worked as a business and entertainment editor, political columnist for daily and weekly publications in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Florida I hosted two shows on an local cable television access station in Connecticut and produced news talk shows in Massachusetts. I have also worked in public relations, promotions and business development. I have lived in Florida since 1989. I became politically active when I left journalism in 1997. I have volunteered for local, state and federal campaigns and in 2018 I ran for Florida State House Representative District 31. I have lived in Eustis since 1997. My community work has included mentoring of at risk high school students for the Orange County Compact in 1990 and I was a founding member of the interfaith housing shelter in Derby, Ct in the 1980s and was Vice President of the Lower Naugatuck Valley Arts Council. I am currently a member of Lake Now, Lake Chapter of the Florida Democratic Women's Club, Golden Triangle Democratic Club, precinct captain for Lake DEC and a member of the Sierra Club and the Bullsugar.
- I am committed to finding common sense solutions to resolve income inequality by improving public education and vocational education.
- I believe it's time to ensure Florida residents have access to affordable housing. Floridia does not have the enough affordable housing stock. Many Florida residents have to work several jobs to pay for rent and qualifying for mortgages is out of reach for many.
- We need to protect our environment from offshore drilling and fracking. Our drinking water, aqua culture, tourism and small businesses would be placed at risk if we allow it.
I would like to work on criminal justice. We must end the school to jail pipeline with diversion programs. We must also examine our relationship with privatized prisons, county jails and state prisons. Are we saving money by privitization and making the best use of the money allocated to prison operations including how healthcare and rehabilitative services are conducted. We must also ensure that inmates receive necessities such as soap, toothbrushes and tooth paste and that women receive sanitary products. We must also look at how we recruit, train and retain qualified personnel.
I have several people I look up to including many members of the Florida Democratic State Representatives and State Senators because of the work they have done to help the citizens of Florida. State Representative Geraldine Thompson has been a tireless worker to resolve racial inequality in Florida, State Senator Victor Torres for his work on Fight For 15 to raise the state's minimum wage and Sen. Randolph Bracy for his work on rectifying wrongful arrest of minors instead of receiving counseling or alternative non criminal justice help.
The constitution and bill of rights.
Being willing to listen to all constituents, accessible and to be empathetic. I also believe you have to have a willingness to serve all of your constituents, not just special interests and donors.
Patience, open mindedness, tenacity, courage and curiosity.
Service to constituents to help them navigate state government. For example State Senator Linda Stewartof Orlando made certain jobless constituents had hard copies of unemployment benefit applications when the website failed to be accessible .
I would like to see income inequality, racial, and gender inequality resolved. I would also like to expand access to health care. A recent study said 269,000 Floridians would not have died if they had access to health care. We should work to resolve the health care gap.
I clearly remember the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, TX when I was 11.
I worked in agriculture when I was 14 and 15. I worked in the tobacco leaf fields.
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff. It is a compelling portrait of a very smart leader.
A great detective
Most of the jobs I have held did not pay high wages, I have managed to build a house and hold onto it through the 2008 recession. It wasn't easy, but I did manage to keep a roof over my head.
The State Senate is smaller than the State House of Representatives. The current state house makeup is far more conservative than the state senate.
No. I believe that does not allow for enough citizen representation.
Under former Governor Rick Scott, the state did away with growth management plan requirements. The elimination of growth management has meant that growth has put significant demands on water, utilities, schools and roads. We need to look at how we approve development so that services are in place to support it.
We need a system of checks and balances, and while the legislature should try to work in concert with the executive branch, it also needs to serve as a check on bad policies or ineffective administration.
Yes, building bridges between legislators is important to achieve progress for all Floridians.
The redistricting should not be handled as a political process that divides up districts with no sense of fairness to the voters. A non partisan panel should look at it.
Criminal Justice, education and agriculture.
Stories from residents striving to afford housing and how they had to work several jobs to pay for rent. One wo an made $12 an hour at one job and had a second job that was a gig contractor. She lived in a duplex for many years and was able to afford rent of $700. However, a new management company took over and raised the rent to $1200. She could not afford the new rent and had to move out. She moved from friend to friend until she could find an affordable mobile home to rent. Everyone should have access to a affordable p,ace to live that is structurally safe.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 14, 2020
Current members of the Florida House of Representatives
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Daniel Perez
Majority Leader:Tyler Sirois
Minority Leader:Fentrice Driskell
Representatives
District 1
Michelle Salzman (R)
District 2
Alex Andrade (R)
District 3
Nathan Boyles (R)
District 4
District 5
Shane Abbott (R)
District 6
Philip Griffitts (R)
District 7
Jason Shoaf (R)
District 8
Gallop Franklin (D)
District 9
Allison Tant (D)
District 10
Chuck Brannan (R)
District 11
Sam Garrison (R)
District 12
Wyman Duggan (R)
District 13
Angela Nixon (D)
District 14
Kimberly Daniels (D)
District 15
Dean Black (R)
District 16
Kiyan Michael (R)
District 17
Jessica Baker (R)
District 18
Kim Kendall (R)
District 19
Sam Greco (R)
District 20
Judson Sapp (R)
District 21
Yvonne Hinson (D)
District 22
Chad Johnson (R)
District 23
J.J. Grow (R)
District 24
Ryan Chamberlin (R)
District 25
Taylor Yarkosky (R)
District 26
Nan Cobb (R)
District 27
Richard Gentry (R)
District 28
Bill Partington (R)
District 29
Webster Barnaby (R)
District 30
Chase Tramont (R)
District 31
Tyler Sirois (R)
District 32
Brian Hodgers (R)
District 33
Monique Miller (R)
District 34
Robert Brackett (R)
District 35
Erika Booth (R)
District 36
Rachel Plakon (R)
District 37
Susan Plasencia (R)
District 38
David Smith (R)
District 39
Doug Bankson (R)
District 40
RaShon Young (D)
District 41
Bruce Antone (D)
District 42
Anna Eskamani (D)
District 43
Johanna López (D)
District 44
Jennifer Harris (D)
District 45
Leonard Spencer (D)
District 46
Jose Alvarez (D)
District 47
Paula Stark (R)
District 48
Jon Albert (R)
District 49
District 50
Jennifer Canady (R)
District 51
Josie Tomkow (R)
District 52
John Temple (R)
District 53
Jeff Holcomb (R)
District 54
Randy Maggard (R)
District 55
Kevin Steele (R)
District 56
Brad Yeager (R)
District 57
Adam Anderson (R)
District 58
District 59
Berny Jacques (R)
District 60
Lindsay Cross (D)
District 61
Linda Chaney (R)
District 62
Michele Rayner (D)
District 63
Dianne Hart (D)
District 64
Susan Valdes (R)
District 65
District 66
Traci Koster (R)
District 67
District 68
Lawrence McClure (R)
District 69
Danny Alvarez (R)
District 70
Michael Owen (R)
District 71
Will Robinson (R)
District 72
Bill Conerly (R)
District 73
Fiona McFarland (R)
District 74
James Buchanan (R)
District 75
Danny Nix (R)
District 76
Vanessa Oliver (R)
District 77
Tiffany Esposito (R)
District 78
District 79
District 80
Adam Botana (R)
District 81
Yvette Benarroch (R)
District 82
Lauren Melo (R)
District 83
Kaylee Tuck (R)
District 84
Dana Trabulsy (R)
District 85
Toby Overdorf (R)
District 86
John Snyder (R)
District 87
Vacant
District 88
Jervonte Edmonds (D)
District 89
Debra Tendrich (D)
District 90
Vacant
District 91
District 92
Kelly Skidmore (D)
District 93
Anne Gerwig (R)
District 94
Meg Weinberger (R)
District 95
District 96
Dan Daley (D)
District 97
Lisa Dunkley (D)
District 98
Mitch Rosenwald (D)
District 99
Daryl Campbell (D)
District 100
Chip LaMarca (R)
District 101
Hillary Cassel (R)
District 102
Michael Gottlieb (D)
District 103
Robin Bartleman (D)
District 104
District 105
Marie Woodson (D)
District 106
Fabián Basabe (R)
District 107
Wallace Aristide (D)
District 108
Dotie Joseph (D)
District 109
Ashley Gantt (D)
District 110
Tom Fabricio (R)
District 111
David Borrero (R)
District 112
Alex Rizo (R)
District 113
Vicki Lopez (R)
District 114
District 115
Omar Blanco (R)
District 116
Daniel Perez (R)
District 117
Kevin Chambliss (D)
District 118
Mike Redondo (R)
District 119
District 120
Jim Mooney (R)
Republican Party (86)
Democratic Party (32)
Vacancies (2)
