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Nicholas Zateslo
Nicholas Zateslo (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Florida's 2nd Congressional District. He declared candidacy for the 2026 election.[source]
Zateslo completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Biography
Nicholas Zateslo was born in Tallahassee, Florida. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida in 2009. His career experience includes working as a technology executive.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Florida's 2nd Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
General election for U.S. House Florida District 2
Incumbent Neal Dunn, Yen Bailey, Amanda Green, and Nicholas Zateslo are running in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 2 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Neal Dunn (R) | |
 | Yen Bailey (D) | |
| Amanda Green (D) | ||
 | Nicholas Zateslo (D)  | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
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Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Nicholas Zateslo completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Zateslo'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’m an Eagle Scout; my project was the Torreya State Park trail map that’s still in use. My wife is a mental‑health therapist, and we’re raising two young boys here in North Florida.
I’m running for Congress for three main reasons. First, to restore checks and balances: honest oversight, clean single‑issue bills, and a House that legislates instead of governing by crisis.
Second, to prepare families and small businesses for the upheaval caused by AI and automation, I’ll promote pro‑people policies, innovative solutions, and safeguard privacy and cybersecurity, while leveraging technology to make government more straightforward, efficient, and affordable.
Closer to home, I’ll fight to lower property‑insurance costs, harden Gulf Coast infrastructure around places like Tyndall and Port Panama City, protect Apalachicola Bay and Wakulla Springs, and finish rural broadband. I’ll tell the truth, show up, and vote for good ideas no matter who proposes them.- Country over party; checks and balances. No one gets a blank check for power—ever. I’ll help the House do its job again: real oversight that follows facts, subpoenas that mean something, and clean, single-issue bills instead of 2,000-page hostage packages. Publish the text, allow genuine amendments, record the votes, and end the spectacle hearings. When we legislate in daylight, we can pass what we agree on and block executive power-grabs—no matter who sits in the White House.
- Lower costs & stronger communities. Families are getting squeezed—insurance premiums, rent and mortgages, child care, and groceries keep climbing while carriers pull out and wages lag. I’ll lead a Gulf Coast plan that lowers costs and strengthens communities: expand a federal reinsurance backstop; turbo‑charge home‑hardening grants that actually cut insurance bills; invest in resilient bases, ports, roads, and rural broadband; boost housing supply and affordability; make child care more available and affordable; and block price‑gouging and unlawful tariff gimmicks that spike prices. Safer homes, lower bills, faster rebuilds.
- Smart and honest approach to AI and technology. I believe in harnessing technology and AI to boost productivity while ensuring working people benefit from these advances. I'll advocate for strong consumer protections including privacy rights, cybersecurity measures, and transparency requirements. My focus includes developing innovative approaches to portable benefits, income security, flexible work arrangements, and retirement planning. I'm also committed to streamlining federal services to make government more efficient, accessible, and cost-effective for everyone.
Second, preparing for the whiplash of AI and automation. I'm excited about the upside, but clear‑eyed about the risks: job displacement, inequality, national security, and data privacy. We need smart guardrails and pro‑people policies: reskilling, stronger safety nets, and responsible deployment—while using technology to make government work better.
Protects privacy and security. Pass a real federal data‑privacy law with data‑minimization and breach‑notification requirements; mandate safety testing/red‑teaming and incident reporting for high‑risk systems; harden critical infrastructure; and set export controls where national security is at stake.
Demands transparency where it matters. Clear labeling/watermarking of synthetic media; algorithmic impact assessments and auditable logs for high‑risk uses; and the right to an explanation and appeal when decisions affect benefits, health, credit, employment, or liberty. No secret black boxes deciding people’s lives.
Puts workers first. A “GI Bill for automation” with rapid retraining, apprenticeships, and community‑college partnerships; portable benefits and wage‑insurance pilots; and incentives for deployments that augment workers. Companies planning large AI‑driven layoffs should provide notice, transition support, and funding for local training hubs.
Keeps markets competitive and the nation safe. Prevent compute/data monopolies with competition policy and cloud transparency; support open standards and trusted open research; protect supply chains; and target deepfake and cyber threats to elections and critical services.
Delivers better government. Align federal procurement with NIST‑style risk frameworks; pilot AI to cut backlogs and fraud at VA/SSA/USCIS while keeping humans in the loop for benefits, health, and justice decisions; require accessibility from the start; measure outcomes and publish results.
1) Redistricting reform. Ban partisan gerrymandering nationwide and require independent citizen commissions for congressional maps. Set clear, uniform criteria: equal population; contiguity and compactness; respect for communities of interest and city/county boundaries; and a flat prohibition on advantaging a party or incumbent. Make the whole process transparent—open meetings, public data, side‑by‑side draft maps, written justifications, and real time for public comment and citizen‑submitted maps. Restore and modernize Voting Rights Act protections so communities of color can elect candidates of choice, and create fast‑track federal review so illegal maps are fixed before an election—not after.
2) Secure, auditable voting with basic access. Keep the floor simple and funded for the long haul: paper ballots (or voter‑verifiable paper backups) with routine risk‑limiting audits; stable grants for equipment, cybersecurity, training, accessibility, and nonpartisan poll‑worker recruitment; protection for election workers from threats and doxxing; and streamlined access—automatic/online registration, a minimum early‑voting window (including a weekend), and vote‑by‑mail with tracking and a clear cure process.
3) Clean campaigns & money‑in‑politics transparency. Real‑time, itemized disclosure of political spending and donors above sensible thresholds—including shell companies and pass‑throughs—with beneficial‑ownership reporting so foreign or anonymous money can’t hide. Apply “paid for by” disclaimers and public ad libraries to digital ads; strengthen anti‑coordination rules; tighten the ban on foreign influence (including foreign‑influenced corporations); and fix FEC enforcement so violations are investigated and resolved on deadlines that mean something. Give candidates a voluntary small‑donor matching option so people—not big checkbooks—drive campaigns.
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.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on August 26, 2025
