CD 3 Republican Kat Cammack tells her story in new digital ad

Kat Cammack recently launched her first TV ad touting her conservative credentials and dinging her opponents in the Republican primary for Florida’s 3rd Congressional District as “chickens.”

Now, the Gainesville Republican is out with a more subdued video chronicling her upbringing and the experiences that led her to move to the district and work for current CD 3 U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, first as his campaign manager and later as his deputy chief of staff.

“Growing up in the country, and particularly on a cattle ranch, you learn hard work early,” she says in the minute-and-a-half long video. “It’s up in the morning feeding horses, chickens, dogs, cows and same thing at night, and I’m very grateful now looking back that we were instilled that work ethic at an early age.

“So, in April of 2011 we found out that due to [Barack] Obama’s remodification program, we lost our cattle ranch. This was an 1800-page bill that apparently no one had bothered to read, and we were homeless for several months. It was during that time, when we were homeless, that I got a call from Ted Yoho to become his campaign manager here in Florida, and in 2012 we took on the establishment and I became his campaign manager and we ran a successful insurgent campaign,” she continued.

“Working in congressman Yoho’s office I was working on a lot of grant programs and a lot of projects directly related to our first responders. My husband, who is a first responder, I chatted with him and together with a friend of ours we co-founded The Grit Foundation in 2017. Since then we have grown into the official charity for 14 police and fire departments.

“The values that I’ll bring to D.C. are hard work, honesty, integrity, grit and personal responsibility. I know what it’s like to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. We need someone who has the experience and know how to hit the ground running on day one, and I am that candidate,” she concludes.

Cammack is one of 10 Republicans hoping to succeed Yoho, who made good on his 2012 promise to limit himself to four terms.

She faces Ryan Chamberlin, Todd Chase, Bill Engelbrecht, Joe Dallas Millado, Gavin Rollins, Judson Sapp, James St. George, David Theus and Amy Pope Wells in the Aug. 18 primary election.

She is among the top fundraisers in the crowded primary. As of June 30, she had raised $461,000 and had had more than $330,000 left to spend.

Only Sapp and St. George boast bigger campaign accounts, though each has relied on candidate loans to build their advantage.

There’s a large drop-off after Cammack. Chase, a former Gainesville City Commissioner, has $188,497 in his campaign fund while Wells has $140,000. The rest had less than $100,000 heading into the final six weeks of the campaign.

CD 3 covers Alachua, Bradford, Clay, Putnam and Union counties as well as part of Marion. It is a safe Republican seat.

The video is below.