From campaigns to Capitol motherhood for Tara Reid-Cherry

It’s not easy starting a new lobbying firm just before a Legislative Session. It’s also not easy starting a family when your firm isn’t even officially a year old.

But that’s how Tara Reid-Cherry rolls. She started her business, Trianon, last year — though she didn’t announce it until after Session. She considered 2025 to be like a restaurant soft opening: Reid-Cherry was in business and serving clients, but just hadn’t made the grand opening announcement.

And now she is adding becoming a mom to her responsibilities.

“I guess that’s the hard thing I’ve decided to do. Last Session, my hard thing was I just decided to start a new business. This Session, my hard thing I’ve decided to do is have a child,” she said.

Reid-Cherry began Trianon after more than a decade of experience in politics and lobbying. She previously worked on Gov. Rick Scott’s and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaigns.

Now she has more than 15 clients, including several municipalities and groups with interests in education, health care and family and child welfare.

“I’ve known Tara since she was on the Rick Scott campaign. I had the chance to watch her grow in her career. I’ve had a front-row seat to who she’s become in starting this firm,” said lobbyist Darrick McGhee. “She does it the right way in this process, which is always be honest, work hard for your clients, represent their brand well. She’s absolutely one of my favorite people.”

McGhee and Reid-Cherry have shared a couple of clients, including AMIkids, a nonprofit that helps troubled youths.

“She loves those kids. It’s the things that you do behind the scenes when nobody’s watching and the way she advocates for the kids during the budget process when the kids aren’t here and the clients aren’t here,” McGhee said.

For the moment, the firm consists of Reid-Cherry, Sarah Katherine Massey as government affairs director, and two consultants. Massey has experience working with House Speaker Danny Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton.

Reid-Cherry launched the firm a few weeks before the 2025 Session began.

Raised in Putnam County, Reid-Cherry majored in political science at Florida State University — though at first she was actually interested in pursuing a career in musical theater.

“Politics was not really something I was interested in. I got into it later in my 20s,” she said.

But she began rethinking her future and reached out to the Scott campaign, and that work eventually led to lobbying.

“I approach a lot of my work like a campaign,” she said. “There’s a deadline, there’s a time limit that we have to get things done and you work nonstop until the job is done. And whether you win or lose, leaving nothing on the field and knowing you’ve talked to everyone you can and you’ve advocated the best way for your client. That’s what a campaign taught me — long days and long nights.”

In the 2027 Session, she’ll work those 15-hour days with a new child. Her husband, Blaine Cherry of the family-run polling firm Cherry Communications, has an office in the same building as Reid-Cherry, so there will be a lot of tag-team parenting.

“I see all of the moms around the Capitol who do this and do this incredibly — balancing clients and children, and so I feel like I have plenty of resources, you know? People to go to for guidance,” she said.

When she’s not working, Reid-Cherry says her life is pretty low-key and she spends a lot of time at home. She likes to crochet, unwinds to “Real Housewives” and enjoys strolling through Tallahassee Nurseries.

“During Session, I don’t go that many places, but out of Session, when no one else is in Tallahassee, that’s when I can go to the nursery, or Black Radish and Ology, for coffee at least. Those are the places I love,” she said.