Janelle Irwin Taylor
The best descriptor for state Sen. Darryl Rouson this year might be “class act.”
Rouson suffered a snub. A big one. But he didn’t let pettiness get in the way of progress, when a lot of others might have.
The Senate earlier this year passed legislation (SB 1620) that implements several recommendations of the Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders. That’s a panel on which Rouson, himself a recovering addict, serves.
Based on his work in the field, the Senate had unanimously voted to add language in the bill establishing an addiction research center at the University of South Florida to be named after the Senator, who is serving his last legislative term before terming out. The House, however, killed that part of the bill when it passed the legislation.
While this sparked a late-Session standoff, with many Senators ready to kill the bill over the snub, Rouson for the second time in a week stood on the Senate floor and urged colleagues to pass the legislation.
“The Commission will continue to meet in this calendar year to look at the systems that provide behavioral health care in this state and come up with additional recommendations,” Rouson said. “The work of the Commission is more important.”
Bravo, Senator. Bravo.
Landing at No. 13 last year, Rouson has improved upon his ranking this year, even as the end of his Legislative career is coming into view.
And make no mistake, it’s been an extensive career. Between his years in the House and his long tenure in the Senate, Rouson has served 17 years in the Legislature. That experience has earned him respect among colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and it also means he’s often a go-to source for analysis on legislative topics.
“It’s difficult to imagine the Senate without Darryl Rouson. For years, Sen. Rouson has navigated the process in an unassuming, but skillful way,” said Matt Herndon, director of government and community affairs for RSA Consulting Group. “He’s used his life experience to make meaningful impacts in the areas of substance abuse and mental health. Senate leadership values his input on policy issues, and his district reaps the rewards for his efforts during budget conference every year.”
Rouson’s expertise was on display recently when he served on a panel at Tampa Tiger Bay discussing the ramifications — good and bad — of term limits 25 years after they were implemented. Rouson, like others on the panel, lamented that term limits remove institutional knowledge from the lawmakers themselves — now stuck in a cycle of campaigning and serving for a finite amount of time — and instead place it with legislative staff.
And indeed, when Rouson reaches term limits next year, he’ll likely be replaced by someone with far less experience on legislative issues, and the Legislature will lose access to one of the deepest silos of knowledge in Tallahassee.
Part of what makes Rouson a powerhouse in Florida politics, even as he serves from a super-minority in Tallahassee, is his ability to work across the aisle. His longtime advisor and political consultant, Barry Edwards, is a consultant who has worked with both Republicans and Democrats, and is himself a Republican. Rouson has sided with Republicans on things like school choice, criminal justice and drug policy.
The latter two are personal. Rouson himself suffered through a period of addiction to crack cocaine and the financial stress it caused. He once joined former Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Republican, on legislation to reduce penalties against three-time offenders of driving without a license.
Through his time in the Legislature, Rouson has sponsored legislation designed to help addicts and alcoholics recover, provide relief for those suffering from autism and sickle cell disease, protect workers at risk of heat exhaustion, give aid for the mentally ill; and more.
Rouson also gets tapped for legislative leadership roles, and is usually the only, or one of only a few, Democrats to be handed such assignments.
He’s currently serving through the 2026 Legislative Session as Vice Chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, a post he has had since 2022 and that, according to Rouson, no Black lawmaker has held in the last more than two decades.
Rouson is a graduate of Xavier University and the University of Florida School of Law. He’s been free of his addiction for 27 years, and he’s now part of a three-person law firm he founded, which has since merged with Rubenstein Law.
_____
A special thanks to RSA Consulting Group, the sponsor of this year’s rankings.
As for methodology, we define the Tampa Bay region as Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco, but we can also include Hernando, Polk or Sarasota if the politicians from those counties impact either Pinellas or Hillsborough.
We define a politician as being in office or running for office.
Being first on a panelist’s list earns the politician 25 points, second earns them 24 points, and so on, to where being listed 25th earns a politician one point. Points are added and, voilà, we have a list.
We also want to thank our experienced and knowledgeable panelists, who were essential to developing the 2025 list: Vinik Family Office Chief of Staff Christina Barker; Mercury Public Affairs Managing Director Ashley Bauman; Matt Blair of Corcoran Partners; Reggie Cardozo of The Public Square; Stephanie Cardozo of The Southern Group; Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick managing partner Ron Christaldi; former state Sen. Janet Cruz; political consultant/strategist Barry Edwards; Vicidial Group President Matt Florell; Sunrise Consulting Group President Shawn Foster; businessman Michael Griffin; Clay Hollis of Tucker/Hall; Natalie King of RSA Consulting Group; Moffitt Cancer Center VP of Public Affairs and Communications Merritt Martin; former state Rep. Seth McKeel of The Southern Group; political consultant Chris Mitchell; Mike Moore of The Southern Group; RSA President and CEO Ron Pierce; Tucker/Hall CEO Darren Richards; political consultant Jim Rimes; political consultant Preston Rudie of Catalyst Communications Group; TECO VP of State and Regional Affairs Stephanie Smith; lobbyist Alan Suskey of Shumaker Advisors; Doyle Walsh, Chief of Staff for St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch; and Michelle and Peter Schorsch, publishers of Florida Politics.
