Amazon executive and Democrat Leonard Spencer, 53, of Gotha, squares off against Windermere Republican State Rep. Carolina Amesty, 29, in the Nov. 5 election for House District 45. The district includes Oakland, Winter Garden, Windermere, the Disney area and part of Osceola County. Representatives serve two-year terms and earn $29,697 annually. 

“We need somebody in Tallahassee who's going to represent and talk to folks and solve issues that are gonna make our lives better right here. And that's what I vow to do,” Spencer said in June at his first public appearance as the District 45 candidate.

Early voting takes place daily Oct. 21-Nov. 3, 8 a.m.- 8 p.m. Check our list for locations. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is Oct. 24. Mail-in ballots can be returned to any early voting location but must be received by the Supervisor of Elections office at 119 Kaley St. in Orlando by 7 p.m. on Nov. 5.

Spencer, a first-time candidate and self-described "recovering finance guy,” faced no opposition in the primary and automatically became the Democratic nominee. Amesty, whose two-year term has been dogged by numerous scandals, was recently indicted on four counts of felony forgery for allegedly signing the name of an employee of her family’s Christian school on a document she then notarized.

“It’s an unfortunate situation for the constituents and for the state to have an indicted representative,” Spencer told VoxPopuli by phone, in his only comment on the matter.

Corporate man

Born in Jacksonville and raised in Alabama, Spencer moved to the West Orange County area in 2005 with his wife, Tanya, and their two children, who recently graduated from West Orange High School, to join The Walt Disney Company. He spent 16 years with Disney, starting as a financial analyst and working his way up to director of suppliers diversity and procurement. Now, he works for Amazon as senior manager of supplier engagement. He’s been focused on minority business; supplier diversity and inclusion is his passion.

Kitchen-table issues

Spencer told VoxPopuli that the district “needs someone with integrity” to ensure constituent voices are heard.

“I can be that voice for the community, bringing folks together, really trying to come to consensus, rather than dividing people up and taking these extreme positions,” he told VoxPopuli. He’s talking about the six-week abortion ban, which took effect May 1, and the book bans, which stripped more than 650 titles out of Orange County classrooms and invited a lawsuit against the state from six major book publishing houses.

Spencer said that when he talks to voters, he doesn’t hear concerns about book bans, he hears worries about kitchen-table issues like high rents and property insurance.

Spencer said his priorities are to address the state affordability crisis, boost teacher salaries and “get legislators out of the doctor’s office so that women can dictate what they do with their own bodies.”

“Florida is becoming too expensive for folks that have lived here their entire lives,” he said. “We’ve got to put a stop to the bailouts funded by the taxpayers. We need to entice insurance companies to come to the state so that we can increase competition.

He wants to incentivize developers to build real affordable housing and stop legislators from raiding the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund for money for other appropriations. The trust fund was established in 1992 as the “state’s only vehicle for making long-term investments in affordable housing development,” according to the Florida Policy Institute. But, in 2002, starting under Gov. Jeb Bush, and continuing for decades, an estimated $2 billion in housing funds have been diverted (or “swept”) into the General Revenue Fund for other projects, resulting in a loss of 94,000 affordable housing units.

“We need to address the diversion of these funds,” he said.

Education is also a top priority, and under that umbrella Spencer is focused on improved educator salaries, ending book bans and ensuring that factual history is being taught in classrooms so that “we’re educating our kids and preparing them for the workforce of tomorrow,” he said.

He also wants to see more social services for helping children with mental health issues and homelessness. He said the “trauma” and “mental stress” that accompanied the pandemic is “still reverberating through the educational system today.” He wants students to have access to counselors.

Spencer said he also supported background checks for gun purchases. “We need common sense gun legislation, right? Most people agree that there should be some background checks related to having access to a gun. It makes no sense for us not to do common sense gun reform as it relates to background checks.”

When it comes to women’s reproductive health, Spencer framed the issue in terms of freedom. “We are a country, a community, that embraces freedom. So how do we make sure that women are free to make choices about their own bodies, right?

“We have to protect reproductive rights, access to IVF [in vitro fertilization] because these are things that are important to folks here in Central Florida.”