Fort Myers truck driver challenges Ben Albritton for District 27 state Senate seat

To say Christopher Proia is an underdog in his campaign against state Sen. Ben Albritton is an understatement.

But from Proia's point of view, his years on the road as a truck driver have given him insight into how he can change the political direction of the state.

Proia, a Democrat from Fort Myers, is challenging Albritton, a Republican from Wauchula, in Senate District 27.

It's no small task.

Albritton is slated to become Senate president in 2024 and has millions of dollars at his disposal through his Senate campaign and political action committee. He currently represents District 26, which includes the southern half of Polk County as well as the counties of  Hardee, Highlands, DeSoto, Okeechobee, Glades and a large part of Charlotte.

After redistricting this year, much of the territory of the old District 26 was included in the new District 27. The new district stretches a little deeper into Polk, reaching as far north as the Polk Parkway in Lakeland. From there it stretches south, including Hardee, DeSoto and Charlotte counties and a small part of Lee. The district no longer includes Highlands, Glades or Okeechobee counties.

Sen. Ben Albritton

Albritton, 54, and his campaign did not respond to multiple messages requesting an interview.

His campaign website describes him as a family man and agricultural business owner who also enjoys “reading and studying about the founding principles of America, and aggressively searching for innovative ways to make Florida a better place for our generations to come.”

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According to the Florida Senate website, Lakeland-born Albritton attended Florida Southern College, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in business with an emphasis in the citrus industry and later received a distinguished alum award from his alma mater in 2011.

He was elected to the Senate in 2018 and previously served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2010 to 2018.

His accomplishments in business and politics have earned him a multitude of awards and accolades, the Senate website said. He was named a champion of agriculture by the Florida Farm Bureau, distinguished advocate by the Florida Chamber of Commerce and legislator of the year by the Florida Forestry Association.

Similar distinctions were bestowed on him by associations representing cattlemen, fruit and vegetable growers, building contractors, the Guardian ad Litem program and the Peace River Center.

He also has a long voting history in the Florida Legislature. During this year’s session, he introduced or co-sponsored bills gaining passage that addressed nursing homes, a road designation, and the agriculture and citrus industries, the website said.

Albritton supported a bill this year that banned abortion after 15 weeks, with no exceptions for rape or incest. He also supported the so-called "Stop WOKE Act," which banned certain types of diversity training in schools or businesses.

And Albritton voted in favor of the Parental Rights in Education bill. Dubbed “Don’t say gay” by critics, the legislation banned public school teachers from instructing students on sexual orientation or gender identity at certain grade levels.

Christopher Proia

Proia, 40, formed his appetite for politics over a nearly eight-year period, first online in Facebook arguments, then offline at bipartisan Drinks for Democracy gatherings at Ollie's Pub Records and Beer in Cape Coral, he said.

It was there that he met a U.S. congressional candidate who encouraged him to run for office.

He filed paperwork to run May 25 with the Florida Division of Elections.

“Basically, it was time to put action behind the words,” he said. “A lot of people can talk but not that many people can walk the walk … I definitely want to get the blue side a little bit more politically active around here.”

The Fort Myers native, who has completed college level courses at Edison State College and Florida SouthWestern State College, wants to reduce income inequality, protect all human rights for women and society’s most vulnerable, and protect the environment.

Regarding the abortion issue, Proia said, “I’m very passionate about abortion rights for women. That’s a decision that should be made between a woman and her doctor. I don't believe that the government should be in the middle of that decision.

“The party that's supposed to be all about freedoms and liberties is trying to restrict that from half of society,” Proia said in a recent phone interview.

He said women will seek abortions regardless of the new law, and it would be safer to allow medical professionals to administer the procedure.

“The darker motivation of the extremist MAGA politicians is to saddle as many people as they can with responsibilities they can't afford to distract the people from the fact that they and their rich donor class are hoarding resources,” he said.

In terms of culture wars issues, Proia said Democrats try to be more sensitive toward people who historically have not been treated as well as others in the United States, including Native Americans and the LGBTQ community. He sees restricting access to minority viewpoints in society as a negative.

“How are we supposed to know it is wrong if we don’t educate ourselves on the subject,” he said of efforts to restrict access to library books and rewrite lessons on race in history curriculums. 

“It’s just they want to control thinking, and when they do that, people want to break out of it more and more,” Proia said. “When you let people think on their own, people stay relatively sane.”

Regarding environmental issues and especially water quality, Prioa said he is currently forming policies to protect the waterways in southwest Florida and hopes to take them to Tallahassee. They will be based on talks with members of Pine Island ROAR (Rise up, Organize, Agitate and Resist), Peace+ Myakka Waterkeepers and the Captains of Clean Water.

Proia said the Citizens United ruling that ushered in big-money corporate donations has been disastrous for America.

He also said the pay gap between CEO compensation and a company's employees,  such as truckers and logistics workers, has become too far apart, creating income inequality that is dividing America.

He wants to address economic inequality by taxing corporations as the federal government did recently in order to level the playing field. He said he would return tax revenues to public programs, such as assistance for blue-collar workers to gain training and education.

A clear financial advantage

Of the two candidates, the Albritton has a lopsided financial advantage, Florida Division of Elections records show.

All of Proia’s campaign financial transactions occurred in June, when he collected $2,026 in campaign contributions and spent $2,008 with a fee paid to the Florida Division of Elections as the highest of his expenses, records show.

By contrast, Albritton’s campaign account shows a balance of $163,594 as of Friday and expenditures of $46,163, state records show.

Albritton also has funding available through the Advancing Florida Agriculture political action committee, which he chairs. That committee has contributions of more than $3.2 million and expenditures of more than $2.6 million.

Albritton has traveled to New Orleans and Charleston, South Carolina, to fundraise for the committee, The Ledger previously reported. The committees can receive unlimited contributions from individuals as well as corporations and industry groups, and experts say the state has loose guidelines regarding how that money is spent.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Truck driver Christopher Proia challenges Sen. Ben Albritton