Simon, Parks Spar on Insurance, Abortion

By Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — With voters already casting mail-in ballots, candidates in a hotly contested North Florida legislative race squared off on Tuesday as Democrats try to chip into Republicans’ supermajority in the state Senate.

Republican Sen. Corey Simon, a former Florida State University football star who went on to play in the NFL, is trying to fend off a challenge from prominent Tallahassee lawyer Daryl Parks. Simon was elected in the sprawling District 3 as part of a red wave throughout the state in 2022.

GOP leaders have gone all in to try to help Simon defeat Parks, a former partner of nationally renowned civil-rights leader Ben Crump.

The race is considered the sole competitive Senate contest in the Nov. 5 elections, and committees backing the candidates have flooded the airwaves and mailboxes with blistering TV ads and mail pieces.

As an example, mailers attacking Parks accused the attorney, who has represented families of victims of police brutality, of “lying and dividing” the community, “spreading misinformation and hate” and supporting so-called efforts to “defund the police.”

Parks, meanwhile, has targeted Simon for supporting abortion restrictions and for voting in favor of legislation that helped the insurance industry as property-insurance companies fled the state and premiums skyrocketed.

The pair tangled on abortion, education and their records during an hourlong debate Tuesday at the Capital Tiger Bay Club in Tallahassee. They also argued about property insurance, as the district has been hit by three hurricanes in just over a year. Hurricanes Idalia, Debby and Helene all made landfall in Taylor County, which is part of the district.

Simon pointed to a record of delivering funds to rural areas and supporting farmers in the district after last year’s Hurricane Idalia, which caused catastrophic damage in Taylor County.

“I passed a disaster-relief bill worth over $400 million to get resources back into our communities,” Simon said, adding that he established a “revolving-loan” program for farmers hit by the storms.

“Those are the things we need to focus on,” Simon said, when asked what lawmakers should do about the insurance issue during the 2025 legislative session, which will begin in March.

But Parks criticized the senator for supporting a sweeping insurance measure that made it harder for property owners to sue insurers in disputes over claims. The Democrat rattled off statistics he said came from the Office of Insurance Regulation showing that a large number of property-insurance claims from Hurricane Idalia and Hurricane Debby had been denied.

“The bill that he helped pass limits the time that property owners can file claims, makes it harder to file suits, and now we see the byproduct,” Parks said. “As your state senator, I will be watching. The information I just gave you is from the Office of Insurance Regulation. He should already know that information.”

Simon, however, defended what he called “insurance reform.”

“When we look around the state, when I came into office, we were hemorrhaging companies that were representing our families. It was hard for folks to find it. It still is,” Simon said.

While the insurance market has improved, “we’ve got continued work to do,” Simon added. “This by no means is a stopping point.”

Simon and Parks also clashed on the abortion issue, which has dominated much of the 2024 campaign season. Simon supported a 15-week restriction on abortions passed by lawmakers in 2022 but was one of two Republican senators who voted against a 2023 law that prevents abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The law went into effect in May.

The candidates disagreed about a Florida ballot proposal, Amendment 4, aimed at enshrining abortion rights in the state Constitution.

Banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy “is somewhere about right,” Simon said.

“The problem with Amendment 4 is it goes too far,” he said. “I think most people, when they look at the abortion laws in the state, and they look at my voting record … they say, ‘He’s pretty moderate.’”

But Parks said he intends to vote in favor of the proposed constitutional amendment.

“My vision for my daughters is that they have the right to choose and make medical decisions with their doctors,” he said. “I strongly believe that. So I am fighting for their future, so that when they are in with their doctors, those conversations are private and intimate, and they can make whatever decisions they want to make.”

The Senate district is anchored by Leon County, but it includes 12 mostly conservative rural counties. The Republican-controlled Legislature redrew the boundaries during the 2020 redistricting process, increasing the number of right-leaning voters in rural areas in a district previously dominated by Democrats.

Democrats make up 43 percent of the district, with Republicans at about 37 percent and about 20 percent of voters registered with no party affiliation. Leon and Gadsden counties — traditionally Democratic strongholds — comprise about 80 percent of the voter registration in the district, which also includes Dixie, Franklin, Gulf, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette, Liberty, Madison, Suwannee, Taylor and Wakulla counties.

Incoming Senate President Ben Albritton, a Wauchula Republican who will take over as head of the Senate after the November elections, pledged to spend “whatever it takes” to ensure Simon secures a second term.

The district includes some of the state’s most conservative pockets, but Democrats say it is within reach — especially with Vice President Kamala Harris facing off against former President Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in November.

At the close of Tuesday’s forum, the candidates were allowed to ask each other a question.

Parks asked Simon if he intends to vote for Harris or Trump.

“I’m voting for the person that will help continue to make Florida stronger. When I look at what the vice president has done over the last four years, it has made groceries more expensive, it’s made our farmers less safe, it’s made our food less safe. But then when I look at what the former president did, before COVID, we had a thriving economy,” Simon said.