Florida AE Runs for Congress

Carol Platt, the association executive for the Osceola County Association of REALTORS®, St. Cloud, Fla., is one of three candidates running in the Republican Primary for the 9th Congressional District. The winner of that race will face incumbent Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson of Orlando in the 2014 general election.

“If I am honored to earn enough Republicans’ support in the primary, the differences between Congressman Grayson and me will be plentiful in record, views, substance, and style,” Platt told the Sunshine State News in September.

Platt has already won her association staff and elected leaders’ support for her campaign, which requires her to take a leave of absence in 2014. “I am so fortunate to have the encouragement of my staff,” she says. “The fact that they are so good at their jobs allows me to run for Congress.”
Platt sought the input of the association’s board of directors before making the final decision to run. “They encouraged me and offered to stand beside me,” she says.  “That was the first of so many individuals and groups that have come forward to stand with me. I can’t begin to express how honored I feel and just how humbling this experience is.”

Platt’s district, which includes parts of Orange, Osceola, and Polk counties, is 43 percent Democrat; only 29 percent of registered voters are Republican—a challenge Platt will address with a grassroots, door-to-door campaign, she says.

Platt was previously appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to sit on the Polk Community College (now Polk State College) Board of Trustees. She is the former chair of the Florida Association of Community College Trustees’ Commission.  Visit her campaign Web site at www.CarolPlattforCongress.com.