For the District 16 Republican Congressional Primary, TBT recommends Ed Pope

The unexpected retirement of 20-year-veteran Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan has drawn three candidates vying for the party’s nomination: Sydney Gruters, Eddie Speir, and Ed Pope. We find Mr. Pope to be the most qualified contender.

Pope is a retired law enforcement officer and long-time Floridian whose common-sense approach to service we find refreshing. He has shown the courage to take a stand against an unpopular Republican administration on issues ranging from the Iran War and other ham-fisted foreign policy misadventures that continue to add to the mountain of debt we are passing on to future generations of Americans. 

While Pope is a hardliner on immigration and has particular concerns over potential Iranian sleeper cells that could have entered our formerly porous borders, his law enforcement background recognizes the lack of training and oversight of new agents hired in an effort to “put up big numbers” and the danger that has caused.

Pope also sees the wisdom in offering Americans a public option to enroll in Medicaid and understands concerns regarding systems like FLOCK and their potential for abuse in what is quickly becoming a surveillance state. He has resisted focusing on culture-war matters in favor of the kitchen-table issues that American families face daily. This is precisely what we need more of in Washington.

We find Sydney Gruters to be a wholly unsuitable candidate. Mrs. Gruters seems to be running on little more than an endorsement from President Trump, secured through her husband’s longtime relationships with the President as a campaign co-chair, RPOF chair, and current RNC chair. She boasts a long list of endorsements, but that is to be expected of the spouse of such a politically powerful operative. 

Most of all, we find it troubling that she is being confined to such a tightly managed campaign in which she has been unwilling to face tough questions or debate her opponents in any meaningful way. As such, we have no idea what kind of congresswoman Gruters would be, but suspect she would amount to little more than another Republican who remains in lockstep with the administration. We want to see independent-minded representatives who are not afraid to buck the White House for the sake of their constituents or what is best for the country writ large.

We found Eddie Speir to be a much better qualified candidate than Mrs. Gruters. Speir is a passionate advocate for single-item bills to promote transparency in Congress by eliminating the secretive spending tucked into omnibus bills and has accumulated considerable support in two grassroots campaigns. 

What separated Mr. Speir and Mr. Pope for us was the former’s positions regarding Iran, Israel/Gaza, and military intervention in Cuba, along with a campaign that is more culture-war centric. Much of Mr. Speir’s campaign rhetoric also focuses on local and state-level politics rather than on federal policies that impact Americans daily. While we appreciate his willingness to stand up to corrupt developers and the state-level politicians they support, we feel that is more relevant to Tallahassee than to Washington.

For more information, listen to our podcast episodes with Mr. Pope and Mr. Speir below. Sydney Gruters did not respond to our invitation to come on the show.