Your editor met Doug Holder at a fund raiser.  We don’t usually participate in politics, but this current Sarasota Florida representative is a friend of entrepreneurship and small business owner himself.  He voted to support the Florida Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, which is now teaching 240 Florida vets and active military about entrepreneurship and helping to open many new businesses to create jobs.  We’d like to see Doug elected this fall to the Florida Senate.

Doug  announced that he will run for the Florida Senate, District 28, in 2016 in September rather than 2018 as originally planned. Incumbent Nancy Detert has announced that she will leave the Senate next year in order to run for the Sarasota County Commission.  “I want to congratulate Senator Detert on this new opportunity and thank her for her outstanding service to our area both in the Florida House and then the Florida Senate,” Holder said. “I am excited about taking our message of conservative values, limited government, and free market principles to the Florida Senate. I look forward to working to remove barriers to economic growth and job creation and making sure that Florida has a world-class education system.”

From 2006 to 2014, Holder served in the Florida House of Representatives, where he chaired the Regulatory Affairs Committee and was a member of the Economic Affairs Committee and the House Leadership Team.  Holder was widely recognized as a conservative champion of free enterprise during his time in the Florida House. He received an “A” rating from the Florida Chamber of Commerce during all eight years of his service and was named a Florida Chamber Distinguished Advocate in 2011 and 2012. He received the Defender of Liberty Award from the American Conservative Union in 2012 and 2013, and the Associated Builders and Contractors named him a Friend of Free Enterprise in 2008, 2010, and 2012.

“I look forward to fighting to rein in government spending and stop waste, fraud, and abuse,” said Holder. “It is vital that we keep taxes low so that Floridians can keep more of their hard-earned money, especially our seniors.”  Holder attended Middle Tennessee State University, where he received a degree in political science in 1990. While in college, he served as Study Body President and was the Student Ambassador for George H. W. Bush when he visited the campus. Holder moved to the state ofFlorida in 1997.