David Silverberg steps away from notepad to run for Kathleen Passidomo’s Senate seat

A progressive journalist is making the leap from the fourth estate to the ballot.

David Silverberg, a Naples Democrat, just filed to succeed Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, hoping to flip Senate District 28 blue.

“I’m running for the seat because the situation in Southwest Florida demands change,” Silverberg said. “What was once affordable in this area is now becoming out of reach. We need to make Florida affordable again.”

Over a decadeslong career in Washington, the longtime journalist worked as Editor-at-Large for Armed Forces Journal in the 1990s and Managing Editor for The Hill. He then became a founding editor for Homeland Security Today and Border News Network.

Silverberg lived seasonally in Florida starting in 2004, and moved permanently to the Sunshine State in 2014, where he also worked as Communications Director for Democrat David Holden’s congressional campaigns.

Silverberg locally is best known as the founder of The Paradise Progressive, a left of center news site focused on politics impacting Southwest Florida. He acknowledged to Florida Politics that as he makes a run for office himself, the site can no longer bill itself as an independent outlet. But he will still write there.

“It’s going from analysis and commentary to advocacy,” he said. “I want to explain the issues in a lot greater depth. But just explaining issues is not satisfying anymore. It will be different, not as objective as in the past, but it will still be accurate.”

Silverberg is currently the only Democrat in the race, and will likely face Rep. Lauren Melo, who enjoys Passidomo’s endorsement for the seat.

Of course, as a longtime political analyst, Silverberg knows the steep odds he faces in a Republican-heavy part of the state. Passidomo didn’t face opposition when she was elected to her current term, her only run under the current district lines. In 2024, more than 65% of voters in the district supported Republican Donald Trump for President, according to MCI Maps.

But Silverberg also senses that if a Democrat could ever garner enough support to win, it’s this cycle. With Trump in the White House, Democrats are energized as Republicans fight with one another, providing political opportunity like two Florida Special Election wins in right-leaning legislative districts this month.

He said ultimately, he felt moved to run because of a controversial local issue garnering national attention: Alligator Alcatraz. On his blog, he called the Collier County immigration detention facility “Alligator Auschwitz” in a post titled “Straight Outta Dachau,” and doesn’t back off the comparisons to notorious Nazi institutions now.

“Alligator Alcatraz is a moral stain, it’s a financial drain and it cannot remain,” Silverberg said. “Real Americans don’t build concentration camps — real Americans liberate concentration camps. Make no mistake, Alligator Alcatraz is a concentration camp. Spending a million dollars a day on this monstrosity when everyday Floridians are suffering is unacceptable.”

If elected, he said his first priority would be closing the supposedly temporary facility.

He also plans to run on an environmental message that Florida must address climate change, embrace sound public health policy, and protect public education from a takeover by privately run schools. The Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis, by his estimation, made matters worse in all those arenas.

But he has been the most upset at the state government for its war on local control. He said the “developer-driven” push to strip counties and municipalities of planning power must stop.

Of note, Silverberg shares the same hometown now as U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and of U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican front-runner for Governor. Silverberg has endorsed Democrat David Jolly for the race. But would he work with a fellow Neapolitan if Donalds occupies the Governor’s mansion?

“If it would really help the people of Florida, I’d be open to any ideas,” he said. “But under the same token, if his ideas are detrimental to the people of the district or the people of Florida, I would fight him tooth and nail.”