Guerdy Remy sets campaign launch party in SD 9

Democrat Guerdy Remy announced Wednesday she will host her Senate District 9 campaign launch party for Saturday night in Sanford.

Remy, a health care worker, entrepreneur, and longtime Democratic grassroots organizer from Altamonte Springs, is one of five Democrats seeking a chance to take on Republican former state Representative Jason Brodeur for the seat opening up in SD 9. The district represents Seminole County and parts of southern and western Volusia County.

The kickoff event will be at Nathaniel’s Steakhouse Grill and Bar in Sanford, a venue change since the invitations first started going out, Remy said. The venue had to be changed when she got late word, Friday, that the initial restaurant was unexpectedly closing. The event begins at 6 p.m.

“It’s the same. I didn’t change the date or time. You can’t change the date and the venue,” Remy observed. “It’s too torturous.”

Remy said the event is not entirely a fundraiser, though she said her campaign will be soliciting contributions. Admission, which will include dinner, is free, she said. She will speak, along with four other surrogates, she said, and “I don’t think candidates should be charging people to hear them speak.”

Remy is in a large Democratic field hoping for a chance to flip SD 9 as Seminole County has been trending from once reliably-red to purple. Other Democrats running include Patricia Sigman of Longwood, Rick Ashby of Oviedo, Alexis Carter of Altamonte Springs, and H. Alexander Duncan of Geneva.

Remy filed to run in November but said she held off launching her campaign until after the holiday season and a period early in 2020 when she was expecting other candidates to come forward. In the meantime, Sigman raised more than $115,000 and Carter increased his campaign fund to about $30,000. Brodeur, expected to go unopposed for the Republican nomination, entered February with more than $254,789 in cash in his campaign, and another $535,408 in Friends of Jason Brodeur. He has been campaigning for three years.

The seat is coming open because Republican Sen. David Simmons is leaving due to term limits.