Anne Geggis
Viewers in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale cable and television market will soon see more of Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book.
Book’s re-election campaign Monday launched her third video advertisement, “Champion,” with her 5-year-old twins Kennedy and Hudson doing three-peat star turns as the Senator explains what she stands for. Book is in the Democratic Primary, facing her first challenge on the ballot since she first won her Senate seat in 2016.
Her campaign says a “six-figure” ad buy puts the 30-second spot on broadcast and cable channels in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale market.
She explains that her life story is intertwined with her work in the Legislature as the ad flashes scenes of her speaking on the Senate floor and talking one-on-one with people.
“As the mom of two young kids, I’ve worked to strengthen local schools and successfully fought to expand access to health care for Broward families,” she says.
Book advocated for expanding Medicaid for mothers and babies twice, a release from her campaign points out. A tax holiday for infant and child diapers she proposed also made it past the finish line.
It also flashes a scene of her walking for a cause that’s a part of her formative years.
“As a victim of childhood sexual abuse, I’ve made it my mission to protect children,” Books says, “because safer neighborhoods are critical for all families.”
She was also a champion for stricter gun laws, full funding for sheriffs’ child protective investigative units and ensuring full mental health benefits for first responders.
Book is facing her first ballot challenge because the redistricting effort put her in the same district as newly elected Sen. Rosalind Osgood. As a result, Book moved from Plantation to Davie, to Senate District 35, which had no active incumbent. But then former Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief, a Democrat, filed to run for the seat. Without a Republican facing the winner in the General Election, the contest between Book and Sharief is an open Primary, in which voters of any party, or no-affiliation voters can cast a ballot.
The advertisement wraps with an endorsement. “Vote for our mom, Lauren Book,” Hudson and Kennedy say together.
The new SD 35 covers a chunk of unincorporated Broward County south of Interstate 595 and west of Florida’s Turnpike. Pembroke Pines and Miramar account for most of it, but it also includes all or parts of Cooper City, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Southwest Ranches, Sunrise and Weston.
