Eric Lynn says that experience matters, and that’s why he says he’s the best candidate in the Florida Congressional District 13 Democratic primary race that won’t take place for another 14 months.


What You Need To Know

  • Lynn is the third major Democrat to announce his candidacy for Florida's 13th Congressional District seat

  • Lynn has an extensive background working in Washington, both as a senior policy staffer in Congress, and as a advisor on foreign policy and defense for President Obama

  • The seat has been held by Democrat Charlie Crist since 2016; It had been held by Republican C.W. Bill Young from 1970-2013

  • More Politics headlines

“The people of Pinellas County deserve a member of Congress who understands the complexities of Washington, who understands what it takes to pass legislation through the United States Congress, through the United States Senate, and to be signed by the president of the United States,” Lynn said in his prepared speech to around 60 people who gathered early Wednesday evening on the patio of Hops and Props, a beer garden located along the St. Pete Pier.

“That is not something that someone who is there to learn the first day they arrive will be able to accomplish for the people of Pinellas County,” he added to applause.

This is not the 41-year-old Lynn’s first bid for political office since returning to St. Petersburg after an earlier career working in Washington D.C. on policy and politics. He initially ran for the same congressional seat during the 2015/2016 election cycle, but later pivoted to running for a Pinellas County-based state House race after the congressional district was redrawn more favorably for Democrats, persuading Charlie Crist to enter the race and clear the Democratic field. 

Lynn ended up losing that House race to fellow Democrat Ben Diamond, who announced last month that he will leave that seat in 2022 so he too can run for this congressional seat.

Another Pinellas-based Florida House Democrat, Michele Rayner, announced her candidacy for the seat earlier this week.

Lynn worked as a congressional staffer in D.C. before he moved on to work on President Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008. After Obama's election, he worked as a senior advisor in the Defense Dept. for eight years before returning back to St. Pete.

In his speech on Wednesday night, Lynn also spoke about abortion rights, noting how the conservative leaning U.S. Supreme Court announced last month that they would take up Mississippi’s proposal to revive a state law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That case has alarmed abortion rights advocates who say it could overturn a central part of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

“If that happens, the only way that we can protect women’s health is through congressional legislation,” he said to applause from the crowd. “That is why I want to go to Congress.”

Lynn actually was the first Democrat to declare his candidacy for the CD 13 seat last via a press release, a day after Crist kicked off his gubernatorial campaign for governor last month. But Wednesday night was chosen to be his official campaign kickoff.

Speaking to Spectrum Bay News 9 following his campaign remarks on Wednesday, Lynn said that he had heard from Charlie Crist right after he announced his candidacy.

“Charlie reached out to me and said that he believed that, based on my work with President Barack Obama, that I was most qualified to be able to serve in Congress,” Lynn said.

When asked about the quote, a spokesman for the Crist gubernatorial campaign said that Crist hasn’t endorsed anyone in the race and doesn’t have any plans to do so before the August 2022 primary election.

Florida’s 13th Congressional District seat will be re-drawn by the Florida GOP-controlled Legislature in early 2022. Currently the seat leans Democratic by by about 4.6 percentage points over Republicans (39%-34.4%), with another 27 percent registered as Non-Party-Affiliated. That gap is expected to change once the seat is redistricted, but how much it will change won’t be known until those new lines are drawn up and publicly released.

There are currently two candidates on the GOP side:  Anna Paulina Luna, the 2020 Republican nominee for the seat, announced her candidacy last month, while William Braddock has also filed to run, according to the Florida Division of Elections website (though there are no FEC records set up yet). Luna has accused Braddock of threatening to send a "hit squad" to go after her. The St. Petersburg Police Dept. is investigating the matter but not releasing any information.