In the ever-growing conversation about infrastructure, mobility, and quality of life, one message is rolling across Florida loud and clear: public transit matters.

In January, the Florida Public Transportation Association (FPTA) launched a bold new initiative to remind Floridians that buses, trains, and paratransit services are not just vehicles; they are lifelines.

Dubbed “Transit Connects Florida,” the statewide campaign is as expansive as the systems it aims to promote. With over 40 member agencies spanning everything from urban rail systems to rural bus routes, FPTA’s reach is vast. Now, with a fresh digital tool and an ambitious media blitz, they aim to make public transportation personal.

“Transit connects people to so many things that are important in their lives,” said Karen Deigl, FPTA Chair and president/CEO of Senior Resource Association in Vero Beach. “Family, fun, health, commerce, and adventure — that’s what’s on the other side of the ride.”

The campaign, spearheaded by Central Florida-based marketing agency Global-5, is rooted in a clear message: connection. Floridians already make connections by taking nearly 160 million passenger transit trips every year and covering almost 850 million passenger miles.

Now, the goal is to multiply them.

A digital doorway to transit

At the center of the campaign is the sleek new website, TransitConnectsFlorida.com, which aims to be a one-stop shop for Floridians wondering how to get from Point A to Point Better. With just a county name, users can access contact info for their local transit system, whether it is buses in Tampa, trains in Broward, or paratransit services in Tallahassee.

It is designed to be simple and intuitive and, like transit itself, built around the idea that everyone should have a ride.

Moving the message

To bring that message to the masses, FPTA is going full throttle with a multimedia ad campaign targeting all markets throughout Florida. Billboards, streaming audio, radio spots, and social media ads spotlight real-world destinations where transit makes a difference: the job interview, the doctor’s appointment, the beach, or even Grandma’s house.

The hope? That Floridians will start to see public transportation not just as an option, but as their option.

“Transit is good for Florida,” Deigl emphasized. “It increases mobility for residents and visitors, and it creates a five-to-one economic return for our communities.”

That kind of ROI is impressive and essential, especially as state and local leaders weigh long-term investments in sustainability, equity, and smart growth.

A long-term ride

While the ad campaign is expected to run through Florida’s 2025 Legislative Session, the tools it introduces are built to last. The website will remain a permanent part of Florida’s transit landscape, helping residents across the Sunshine State explore their mobility options for years to come.

The campaign lands at a crucial time for lawmakers, advocates, and everyday commuters. As more cities wrestle with congestion, weather challenges, and the needs of aging populations, transit is poised to play a starring role.

If FPTA has anything to say about it, that role starts with a simple idea: connection.

So, next time you hear the familiar whoosh of doors opening or see the blink of an approaching bus, remember: the ride is not just about where you are going. It is about what — and who — you will connect with along the way.

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President Donald Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends in early 2029.

“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News.

He also said “it is far too early to think about it.”

The 22nd Amendment, which was added to the Constitution in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, says “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump if one potential avenue to a third term was having Vice President JD Vance run for the top job and “then pass the baton to you.”

“Well, that’s one,” Trump responded. “But there are others too. There are others.”

“Can you tell me another?” Welker asked.

“No,” Trump replied.

Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term, was asked whether he would want to keep serving in “the toughest job in the country” at that point.

“Well, I like working,” the president said.

He suggested that Americans would go along with a third term because of his popularity. He falsely claimed to have “the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years.”

Gallup data shows President George W. Bush reaching a 90% approval rating after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. His father, President George H.W. Bush, hit 89% following the Gulf War in 1991.

Trump has maxed out at 47% in Gallup data during his second term, despite claiming to be “in the high 70s in many polls, in the real polls.”

Trump has mused before about serving longer than two terms before, generally with jokes to friendly audiences.

“Am I allowed to run again?” he said during a House Republican retreat in January.

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U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is actively running for Governor, and he says there’s a “pretty good” chance the current Governor endorses him sooner or later.

“A lot depends on what’s going to happen over the next couple of months,” the Naples Republican said on Fox News Sunday.

Donalds said he’s been “at the tip of the sphere” on battles against the left, “so I think that my track record in the Republican conservative movement is something that lines up with Governor Ron DeSantis.”

But with First Lady Casey DeSantis mulling a run, Donalds says her husband “has his own decisions to make.”

The intrigue continues about whether the First Lady actually runs; as Erika Donalds says, she has “teased” a campaign. And at least one poll released this month says she would start off in a decent position against the Donald Trump-endorsed Donalds.

A Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy survey shows 53% of GOP voters in the state like Casey DeSantis, while only 9% do not. Donalds has 48% approval and 6% disapproval in the same survey. That gives DeSantis a leg up in terms of favorability.

However, another recent poll from the Trump-aligned Fabrizio Lee & Associates showed Byron Donalds leading Casey DeSantis 34% to 30% in a head-to-head matchup among Republican Primary voters.

The First Lady is being cryptic about her intentions at this point during interviews with friendly questioners.

She sidestepped a direct question at the National Review Institute’s “Idea Summit,” extolling her husband as “the GOAT” and offering vague criticisms of other politicians she wouldn’t name as part of a “long-winded answer” that ended with “we’ll see.”

“All that (Gov. DeSantis) has done is extremely fragile. You could get somebody in and it could revert back,” she said.

She also condemned politicians who “think about what’s next on the next political rung in their career.”

“The founders never thought that politics should ever have been a career, right? You were supposed to go up and serve, and you come home and you live under the laws that you pass. But it’s really changed,” said the wife of a man who ran for Senate while in Congress, and then ran for President immediately after being elected Governor a second time.

Her coyness about her political future started in earnest back in February.

“To quote the late Yogi Berra,” the First Lady said when asked if she was running, “if you see a fork in the road, take it.”

She also warned about “squishes wanting to go Republican lite by continuing to spend on massive boondoggles and not implementing the will of the people,” in comments vague enough to conceivably apply to Donalds, especially given what the Governor said about him directly.

“You got a guy like Byron Donalds, he just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here over the Left over these last years. He’s just not been a part of it,” Gov. DeSantis said in Tampa.

“He’s been in other states campaigning, doing that, and that’s fine. But OK, well, then deliver results up there. You know, that’s what I want to see. I want to see them delivering results for the people of Florida. We deliver it here all the time for the people of Florida, and that’s what we need to be doing.”

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