He’ll have to get past his better-financed opponent first, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, among others, on Aug. 20 and is counting on his resumé and support from unions, veterans and the Black voters to overcome that hurdle. By June, Mucarsel-Powell had raised more than $11.8 million in outside contributions, while Campbell only had $81,000.
Campbell is also facing internal hurdles with personnel, namely the resignation of his campaign manager, Millie Raphael, last week. Reporting by Florida Politics noted that “she never was allowed to see a campaign budget, and said the campaign lacked a finance director.”
“It just never really appealed to me,” Campbell said, “but I can tell you what appeals to me a lot less and that is us losing our democracy. I just could not sit back and watch that happen.”
The inspiration to run
First, Campbell was floored to learn in 2021 that COVID-19 vaccinations were not reaching Black communities in Miami at the same rate as white neighborhoods. In response, Campbell’s company, Eagleforce Associates, Inc., created a COVID-19 digital passport platform known as myVax to help patients schedule vaccinations and view test results.
His initial concerns were replaced as time went on by others, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attacking Black history standards in Florida public schools.
Born to a Jamaican father and a Bahamian mother, the latter of whose ancestors helped build the city of Miami, Campbell has a personal affinity for the importance of Black history. He is a descendant of Ebenezer Woodberry Franklin Stirrup, a Bahamian migrant who constructed more than 100 homes to rent to other Miami settlers in the 1800s.
Before filing his papers for candidacy, Campbell returned to his childhood home in Liberty City. He reminisced about moving into the house at age 4 after his father took a union job; about being bussed to school in Miami Beach; heading to Florida A&M University with just a 2.6 GPA; and later becoming a navy pilot against all odds. He realized he couldn’t see a similar path forward for a young Black teenager today.
“When I look at where we are in the state of Florida and who we have and where we are in the nation, and then how we impact the world, I look to see who could run and who I could support and I didn’t see anybody that could beat Rick Scott,” Campbell said. “It’s just that simple, so I had to run.”
The issues
Campbell says he has a “litany of priorities” for when, not if, he wins the election, and it begins with healthcare. He wants to prevent hospitals from closing across the state, especially in rural areas. He also said he plans to expand the Affordable Care Act, not just in its reach but in its range of services as well, providing “head-to-toe” care for all who utilize it.
On the other hand, Scott refused Medicaid expansion for 833,000 Floridians as governor in 2015 and has since proposed all-out repeals of the Affordable Care Act.
Campbell also named teacher pay and public education as leading concerns. Earlier this year, Florida ranked 50th in the nation for average teacher pay, which Campbell says is intentional and must be fixed at the federal level. He also wants to ensure that federal funding for education follows each student, rather than being redirected toward vouchers for private schools with high tuition costs that low-income families cannot afford either way.
“When we look at what’s happened to Overtown and what’s happening to Liberty City, these are people who are moving to Broward County,” said Campbell. “They’re moving north because they’re being squeezed from all of these areas, and we will lose an entire history.”
Campbell wants an opportunity for Section 8 housing recipients to gain equity. He also wants to propose a statewide standard for affordable housing, rather than having it adjusted according to a regional area median income that’s inflated in Miami-Dade County.
“We level that playing field,” said Campbell. “We build housing that is affordable in every area. We will then have what Miami has seen all along, this great integration of people from all over the world.”
Campbell is also an advocate for responsible gun ownership, complete with training, registration and accountability. Both a gun violence victim and a gun owner, he said he “laugh(s) at anybody who doesn’t think that you should not have at least as much information as you have on your driver’s license when you buy a gun.”
“There’s no challenge to the amendments in the Constitution,” Campbell said. “The Constitution is built so that it grows with us. We just have people that will politicize all of this.”
He also has a plan to lower property insurance rates in the state by what he believes will be 30%, which is to add insurance to the country’s critical infrastructure protection program, creating a federal insurance of shared risk nationwide.
Campbell has a big agenda, that much is clear, but in order to see it through, he’s got to first win the election.
Campbell’s plan for victory
Campbell is positive that he’s the one who could beat Scott, a U.S. senator since 2019.
“I’m going to win the election,” Campbell said, “and I’m going to win it big. I’m going to beat Rick Scott even though he’s got a million-vote head start.”
Campbell has endorsements from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the Democratic Black Caucus of Florida. The latter was announced at the Historic Lyric Theater late last month.
He also believes he’ll be able to secure the votes from a key demographic that Scott typically relies on, military veterans. A navy veteran himself, Scott came under fire when he didn’t speak out against Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on more than 300 military promotions last year.
Campbell vows to never let neither military pay nor promotions be bargained with, and he supports streamlining veterans’ healthcare by allowing former military personnel to be seen by Medicaid- and Medicare-approved providers when Veterans Affairs facilities are not immediately available. He also wants federal subsidies for U.S. Army children’s college expenses.
With former U.S. Navy medical officer and board-certified OB-GYN Dr. Cynthia Macri on his team as senior vice president and chief medical officer of EagleForce Health, Campbell also is confident that he can secure a large chunk of voters concerned with women’s health.
Campbell believes he has not only the right intentions, but also the political know-how to bring them to fruition. He said he’s confident, for instance, that he could sit down with Sen. Marco Rubio to cut a deal to forge a path toward citizenship for millions of immigrants currently living in the shadows.
“These things are going to happen because they depend on my experience in Washington, not just that I can say this. I know exactly who to go to and I know exactly who to talk to.”
Campbell shares the primary ballot with combat veteran, political consultant and Haitian immigrant Rod Joseph; Mucarsel-Powell, an advocate for gun-safety law and former U.S. representative; and former Florida Rep. Brian Rush. The winner will face off against Scott in November.
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