By Staff Writer
Anthony “Tony” Hill, labor leader and former Florida State senator and legislative aid to Congressman Al Lawson, announced his candidacy for the Florida Fourth Congressional District, the newly drawn seat covering half of Duval County plus all of Nassau and Clay counties. Before redistricting, Congressman Al Lawson represented the district.
Former state senator Tony Hill will run for the newly drawn Northeast Florida congressional district, bringing a campaign-tested Democrat into the race for a seat covering half of Duval.
The new district did not include Tallahassee, where Lawson lives. But it does include Jacksonville where Tony Hill, a leader in the A. Phillip Randolph. Institute, has a high cross over in white constituencies. The new district has fewer than 40 percent of registered Black voters in the newly drawn seat covering half of Duval County plus all of Democrats, but they could potentially be back in Congress as fellow representatives.
Hill, who was born in Jacksonville and lives on the Northside within the Fourth Congressional District, said the district is not a Republican lock and he will seek to turn out Democrats and court voters not affiliated with either party.
“We’re going to give people a choice,” he said. “I want to make sure the people in the Fourth District are not listening to the national media and making this a referendum on (President Joe) Biden and (Vice President Kamala) Harris. This has nothing to do with Biden and Harris. This has to do with constituents in the Fourth District “
Hill has been immersed for decades in politics. He served in the state House of Representatives from 1992 to 2000 and in the state Senate from 2002 to June 2011. He then worked in the administration of Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown and then in the congressional office for Lawson.
He also has worked as a longshoreman and leader in the AFL-CIO. He launched his campaign in front of the union hall for International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1408 near the Talleyrand terminal. He said his main goal is for working families in Northeast Florida to have a voice.
He said he wants to work in Congress to ease the weight of student loan debt of students “particularly if they come in the area for service” such a teachers, firefighters and police.
Hill, an Army veteran, said some people, especially women, are leaving the military, coming back home and “sleeping in their cars with their kids.”
“I’m running to fight for those ladies,” he said, adding he would help them navigate the bureaucracy for help.
Portions of this article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Tony Hill jumps into race for Congress in redistricted seat
