Darryl Rouson faces another challenge from Christina Paylan

Image via Colin Hackley.

Sen. Darryl Rouson is facing a rematch against a familiar face under a new party affiliation.

Christina Paylan challenged Rouson in Senate District 19 two years ago as a no-party candidate. She lost by 38 percentage points, drawing fewer than 80,000 votes to Rouson’s more than 174,000.

Now, she’s running as a Republican in the district, renumbered through reapportionment as Senate District 16.

Rouson is overwhelmingly favored to win again in the deep-blue district.

The new district is largely unchanged from two years ago, still splitting the bay and covering parts of both Hillsborough and South Pinellas. The voter registration overwhelmingly favors Democrats, with about 170,000 registered Democrats and just 66,000 GOP voters. In fact, the number of registered Republicans and nonpartisan voters combined don’t equal Democrats’ registrations, according to the most recent L2 voter data. 

And Rouson has a massive money advantage. As of the first week of October, he had raised nearly $150,000, with more than $100,000 still on hand leading up to the Nov. 8 election. Paylan had raised just $1,800 by the same point, plus $22,500 in money Paylan loaned her campaign. She spent more than she brought in, according to finance records with the Division of Elections.

Paylan is running on a platform to bring transparency to the legal system, particularly in health care litigation.

Her website states she wants to “make sensible laws that takes the lawyers out of the equation in doctor-patient relationship” and to “Establish Clear Mandates on Prescription Drugs — Not Just Guidelines That Causes More Confusion Leaving Room for Lawyers to make money off of senseless prosecutions.” Arbitrary capitalizations are her own.

The website states Paylan also wants to implement a statewide mental health task force to ensure guns do not get into the wrong hands and bring transparency to all elected officials and accountability to judges and prosecutors. 

Rouson has served in the Senate since 2016, after serving eight years in the House. He has been a moderate Democrat who sometimes crosses the aisle to vote with Republicans. His “rounded agenda” earned a nod from the Tampa Bay Times editorial board in their recommendations for local Senate candidates. 

Rouson, a former drug addict himself, has long supported increased funding for mental health and addiction counseling.