Politics
Leela Gray holds commanding edge in CD 13 Democratic Primary
Democrats in Florida’s 13th Congressional District have one week to decide which of three candidates will take on Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in November.
Retired Army Brig. Gen. Leela Gray enters the Aug. 18 Primary with by far the most funding and institutional support. John Liccione, an Air Force veteran and cybersecurity executive, is pitching voters on a campaign emphasizing national security, election integrity and child sex trafficking issues. Brandt Robinson, a longtime Pinellas County teacher and activist, is running as a grassroots progressive.
The winner advances to a difficult General Election against Luna, who is unopposed in the Republican Primary and seeking a third term. No-party candidate Tony D’Arrigo has also qualified for the November ballot.
The financial divide among Democrats is substantial. Gray reports more than $1.2 million in contributions through July 29 and has about $683,000 in cash on hand. Robinson reports about $106,000 in contributions and enters the closing stretch with nearly $8,000 available on hand. Liccione reports just over $15,000 in contributions, including about $12,000 in loans to his own campaign, and has about $500 on hand.
Gray has also earned significant political support for her campaign, including former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, U.S. Reps. Kathy Castor, Lois Frankel, Jason Crow, Pat Ryan and Ted Lieu, former U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, former state Rep. Ben Diamond and former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink. EMILY’s List, VoteVets, the Florida AFL-CIO and the West Central Florida Labor Council are also backing her.
Gray’s campaign emphasizes her experience, describing her pitch as “leadership over chaos.” Her campaign emphasizes cost-of-living, housing, healthcare, insurance, food and energy cost issues, while arguing that partisan dysfunction has kept Congress from addressing the pressures facing families.
A third-generation veteran and lawyer, Gray served more than 30 years in the Army, including two combat deployments and a peacekeeping mission before retiring as a Brigadier General. She later advised U.S. Army Cyber Command and has also worked in business and at the State Department.
Liccione is running with a military record of his own. He enlisted in the Air Force at 18 and later served as an intelligence analyst in Korea and at National Security Agency headquarters. He went on to work in electrical engineering and cybersecurity. He now runs Ballotir, an election technology company.
His campaign uses the slogan “Kids First — Above All Else” and has made combating child sex trafficking a focal point. Liccione has proposed redirecting $100 billion from federal immigration enforcement toward a new child-trafficking initiative and has called for aggressively pursuing what he describes as the “Epstein network.” He also focuses heavily on voting rights and election systems, cybersecurity, support for Ukraine, clean energy and affordability.
Liccione’s rhetoric at times goes further than policy proposals. He has described mass deportation as “ethnic cleansing,” framed his opposition to President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as a fight against “fascist regimes,” and has filed four election-related lawsuits challenging Florida’s redrawn congressional map.
Robinson is making a different case. A Pinellas County native and Lakewood High School graduate, Robinson has taught in the county for 29 years. He studied political science and Black Studies at Florida State University before earning a master’s degree in African American Studies and has spent years involved in union, civil rights and community organizing.
His campaign is explicitly progressive and claims the influence of wealthy donors is part of what is wrong with Washington. Robinson supports a $20 federal minimum wage, universal child care, Medicare for All, stronger antitrust enforcement and a federal insurance backstop. He also supports abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and replacing it with a new immigration agency under independent oversight.
He has garnered support from groups including Florida Rising, the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association and the Pinellas Educational Support Professionals Association.
Whoever wins the Democratic nomination will immediately face a much steeper financial fight.
Luna has raised more than $3.23 million in contributions through July 29 and still has nearly $1.5 million in cash on hand. That means even Gray, despite her commanding advantage in the Democratic Primary, would begin the General Election with less than half the cash currently available to the incumbent.
Money is only part of the challenge. The district itself remains favorable terrain for Republicans although Democrats continue to target it as a battleground.
Luna first won CD 13 in 2022 and secured a second term in 2024 with nearly 55% of the vote. The district has since been redrawn, shedding some territory in south Pinellas County while extending north into southwest Pasco County. Nearly 56% of voters within the new boundaries backed Trump in the 2024 Presidential Election.
Still, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has included CD 13 among its Republican-held “Districts in Play.”
For now, the choice belongs to Democratic voters during the Aug. 18 Primary. The nominee moves on to face Luna and D’Arrigo in November.
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