Tamika Lyles

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Tamika Lyles

Democratic Party

Candidate, U.S. Senate Florida

Elections and appointments

Last election

August 18, 2020

Next election

August 18, 2026

Military

Personal

Birthplace

Jackson, TN

Religion

Christian

Profession

Teacher, Business owner

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Instagram

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Tamika Lyles (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Florida's 16th Congressional District. She declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on August 18, 2026.^[source]

Lyles is also running in a special election to the U.S. Senate to represent Florida. She declared candidacy for the special Democratic primary scheduled on August 18, 2026.^[source]

Biography

Tamika Lyles was born in Jackson, Tennessee. She obtained an undergraduate degree in April 2001 and a graduate degree in April 2016. Lyles has served in the U.S. Air Force. Her professional experience includes working as a high school teacher and as a business owner. She is a Florida notary public. Lyles is a member of the Democratic Black Caucus of Florida, the Democratic Veteran's Caucus of Florida, the Osceola County Democratic Executive Committee, and the Osceola County Democratic Women's Club. She is the president of the Osceola County Democratic Black Caucus and the vice president of the Osceola County Democratic Veteran's Caucus.

Elections

2026

See also: United States Senate special election in Florida, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on August 18, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. Additional general election candidates will be added here following the primary.

Special general election for U.S. Senate Florida

Neelam Perry is running in the special general election for U.S. Senate Florida on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Neelam Perry (No Party Affiliation)

---

	There are no incumbents in this race.
= 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

Special Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Florida

The following candidates are running in the special Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Florida on August 18, 2026.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Joey Mendoza Atkins
		Paul Ron Cruz
	Submit photo	Frank DiMola
	Submit photo	Charles Gould
		Alan Grayson
		Jennifer Jenkins
		Tamika Lyles
	Submit photo	Evelyn McBride
		Hector Mujica
		Angela Nixon
	Submit photo	Dennis Stevens
	Submit photo	Alex Vindman

---

	There are no incumbents in this race.
= 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

• Joshua Weil (D)

Republican primary election

Special Republican primary for U.S. Senate Florida

The following candidates are running in the special Republican primary for U.S. Senate Florida on August 18, 2026.

		Candidate
		Ashley B. Moody
		Ashley Baptiste
		Chris Gleason
		Michaelangelo Hamilton
	Submit photo	Jake Lang
		A.C. Toulme

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= 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.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

2020

See also: Florida House of Representatives elections, 2020

General election

The general election was canceled. Kristen Arrington won election in the general election for Florida House of Representatives District 43.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Florida House of Representatives District 43

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Florida House of Representatives District 43 on August 18, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kristen Arrington	31.5	7,367
		Alex Barrio	21.4	5,006
		Tamika Lyles	16.4	3,838
		Carlos Irizarry	11.4	2,666
		Andrew Jeng	11.3	2,643
		Ricardo Rangel	8.0	1,880

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 23,400 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= 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

• Anthony Nieves (D)
• John Cortes (D)

2018

General election

General election for U.S. Senate Florida

Rick Scott defeated incumbent Bill Nelson in the general election for U.S. Senate Florida on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rick Scott (R)	50.1	4,099,505
		Bill Nelson (D)	49.9	4,089,472
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	1,028

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 8,190,005
= 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

• Joe Allen (Independent)
• Joe Wendt (L)
• Gregory Bowles (Independent)
• Carlos Garcia (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Florida

Incumbent Bill Nelson advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Florida on August 28, 2018.

		Candidate
✔		Bill Nelson

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source
= 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

• Tamika Lyles (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. Senate Florida

Rick Scott defeated Roque De La Fuente in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate Florida on August 28, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rick Scott	88.6	1,456,187
		Roque De La Fuente	11.4	187,209

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,643,396
= 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

• Martin Mikhail (R)
• Augustus Sol Invictus (R)
• Joe Smith (R)
• Marcia Thorne (R)

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Tamika Lyles has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Tamika Lyles asking her to fill out the survey. If you are Tamika Lyles, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?

Any candidate running for elected office, at any level, can complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Survey. Completing the survey will update the candidate's Ballotpedia profile, letting voters know who they are and what they stand for.  More than 25,000 candidates have taken Ballotpedia's candidate survey since we launched it in 2015. Learn more about the survey here.

You can ask Tamika Lyles to fill out this survey by using the button below or emailing lylesforsenate26@gmail.com.

2020

Tamika Lyles completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Lyles' responses.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

As a mother, veteran, teacher, small business owner and advocate, Tamika Lyles has proven to be a dedicated mediator, philanthropist, and passionate advocate. Her enthusiasm for social change, avid interest in law and public policy, combined with her multi-level ideas have led her to seek a seat in the Florida House, as the Representative for District 43 in 2020. Her platform is built around healthcare, education, minimizing poverty, creating affordable housing, building the economy and many other issues that plague underrepresented communities. Upon winning this election, Tamika will once again make history as the first person of African American descent AND the first woman to ever represent District 43.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• I believe healthcare is a human right

• I believe all children have a right to equal and adequate public education

• I believe all people have a right to adequate and affordable housing

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Healthcare, education, housing, wages and climate change

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to my mother. My mother participated in sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement and ultimately became the first woman of color to be promoted to management in the company she worked for. In addition, she was the first woman I knew to become a business owner. I admire her strength to fight through adversity and her desire to achieve despite no path being made for her. To achieve such great accomplishments while being a single mother is astounding and rare. She had no idea that the path she was constructing would be the blue print for the path her daughter would also construct.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

I believe our representatives should be "of the people, by the people and for the people." Too often we base our decision on factors of little relevance, such as money and experience. I believe representatives should have experience in leadership and representation in some capacity. However, holding a prior office does not always determine who will do a better job. I believe the closer a person is to the community, the better job he/she can do speaking on behalf of the people he/she represents.

What do you perceive to be your state’s greatest challenges over the next decade?

Florida is a battleground state. Therefore, one of the state's greatest challenges will always be "party politics." The focus remains on who the parties want to represent the people and not who the people want to represent them. Money in politics is the biggest influential factor. I would like to see Florida move more toward ensuring the right candidate is one whose first priority is ensuring the constituents are adequately represented and understanding that most people are unable to contribute thousands of dollars to political campaigns. Nevertheless, all people deserve to be heard.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.

I do believe it is beneficial to build relationships with other legislators. Often those relationships are tools for getting legislation passed and bridges for a career in the political arena. My main goal is to ensure I provide adequate representation for the constituents I represent.

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.

---

Tamika Lyles campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2026*	U.S. Senate Florida	Candidacy Declared primary	$22,877	$3,049
2020	Florida House of Representatives District 43	Lost primary	$6,124	N/A**
Grand total			$29,001	$3,049
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

See also

2026 Elections

What's on the ballot? U.S. Congress U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. Congress State executives State legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards

Newsletters

The Daily Brew The Weekly Brew The Ballot Bulletin Checks and Balances Economy and Society Hall Pass Number of the Day Robe & Gavel Union Station

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Candidate

U.S. Senate Florida

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Personal

Facebook

LinkedIn

Footnotes

[show]

Florida's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Ashley Moody (R)

Rick Scott (R)

Representatives

District 1

Jimmy Patronis (R)

District 2

Neal Dunn (R)

District 3

Kat Cammack (R)

District 4

Aaron Bean (R)

District 5

John Rutherford (R)

District 6

Randy Fine (R)

District 7

Cory Mills (R)

District 8

Mike Haridopolos (R)

District 9

Darren Soto (D)

District 10

Maxwell Frost (D)

District 11

Daniel Webster (R)

District 12

Gus Bilirakis (R)

District 13

Anna Luna (R)

District 14

Kathy Castor (D)

District 15

Laurel Lee (R)

District 16

Vern Buchanan (R)

District 17

Greg Steube (R)

District 18

Scott Franklin (R)

District 19

Byron Donalds (R)

District 20

Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D)

District 21

Brian Mast (R)

District 22

Lois Frankel (D)

District 23

Jared Moskowitz (D)

District 24

Frederica Wilson (D)

District 25

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D)

District 26

Mario Diaz-Balart (R)

District 27

Maria Elvira Salazar (R)

District 28

Carlos Gimenez (R)

Republican Party (22)

Democratic Party (8)