Natalie Kato and Tim Nungesser

Lobbyist Natalie Kato and business advocate Tim Nungesser were engaged in The Process before they met and fell in love. Within a few years, the two moved past engagement to wedded bliss and started a family in Tallahassee.

Kato today runs her own law firm conducting work for contract clients while Nungesser serves as the Florida Legislative Director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The two these days often end up on the same side of policy battles in Tallahassee. But it notably wasn’t that way when they met.

Circa late 2011, Kato had taken a job as office counsel for the Senate Minority’s Office under then-Sen. Nan Rich, a Broward Democrat, while Nungesser worked under then-Gov. Rick Scott, a Naples Republican, as legislative affairs director for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Kato recognized Nungesser’s name as the same as a political family in Louisiana she saw plastered on campaign billboards during a recent trip to New Orleans, a literal “sign” she should learn more. The two started talking at a social gathering at a Tallahassee bar after hours and struck up a six-hour conversation, and then began finding more reasons to stay in touch.

“We would spend a lot of time meeting up for drinks after work and things like that,” she said. “And I think, just, the hours are long and you’re sort of with each other in this fish bowl. It just sort of developed from there.”

The two started dating after Christmas and were a definite couple by January. Before Valentine’s Day, Nungesser reached out to an ethics lawyer to see if he, as an agency manager, could send legislative counsel flowers without violating a gift ban.

“The answer came back that no, I couldn’t,” Nungesser recalls. He still grumbles at the knowledge of lobbyists who sent similar mementos of affection to paramours in offices they were directly trying to influence. But he had gone and asked a question without knowing the answer and couldn’t send any bouquets until he started working for NFIB in 2013.

“We were really trying to follow the rules, so I didn’t get any flowers,” she said. “He made up for it later.”

The couple married in August 2015 (in a ceremony performed by now-TECO lobbyist Justin Thames) and both continue to work in the influence industry. With both now working outside government, they occasionally still find themselves at professional odds.

Kato’s voice still rises recalling a time her client, the Alliance for Safety and Justice, sought out NFIB support for requiring employers give unpaid leave for families of homicide victims, but Nungesser immediately said the group couldn’t embrace an employer mandate. The federation ultimately stayed neutral on the bill, the closest Kato could come to a win.

But more often, private businesses hiring Kato work in concert with the efforts of Nungesser’s team at NFIB. She also seeks out political insight from Nungesser, knowing the business group’s high success rate with endorsements.

Since 2022, the policy power couple also work in partnership on a more personal and important project, raising daughter Evangeline. The tot turns 3 in June. But the big question for politicos may be whether she adopts the political leanings of her mother or father.

Neither will hazard a guess at what letter may appear on a voter ID card some day. “Natalie won’t let me get her a MAGA hat,” Nungesser said. But the proud dad notes Evangeline’s baby gifts included both a onesie promoting Democratic state Rep. Dan Daley’s re-election campaign and “Welcome to Florida” message from now-U.S. Sen. Scott printed on National Republican Senatorial Committee letterhead.

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