County Conversations: Rep. Holcomb

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Welcome to the County Conversations podcast, brought to you by the Florida
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Association of Counties Institute for County Government with support from the University
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of Florida's IFAS. In this podcast, we dive deep into
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the diverse and dynamic world of Florida's counties with engaging
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interviews and thought-provoking conversations surrounding the challenges as
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well as successes of Florida's counties. Each episode brings
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you firsthand perspectives from county commissioners, government officials,
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community leaders, and subject matter experts who are shaping the
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future of our state. We explore a wide range of topics from economic development
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and public safety to environmental conservation and emerging
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technologies. Our aim here is to provide a platform for
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knowledge sharing, collaboration, and inspiration for county officials and residents
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alike. Whether you're a county commissioner, government professional, or simply
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interested in understanding the local government landscape, we hope this podcast provides valuable
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insights and practical takeaways on all things counties.
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All right, we're live here at the Florida Association of Counties
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Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. I'm here with a special, special guest,
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a state representative, uh, Navy, uh,
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do-it-all, a former county commissioner. Man, what else— what, what haven't you
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done? I'm here with Representative Holcomb. How you doing today? I'm doing great.
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There's probably a lot I haven't done, but let's talk about stuff we have done
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though. All right, uh, so first question is, what inspired you to get into
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public office? Uh, you can talk about your representative or you can talk about county
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commission. Um, probably some mental illness is a
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part of it, but, um, you know, really seriously, the,
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you know, you want to give back, but you want, you want good things to
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happen where you live. And, you know, you want the place where you, you,
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you sleep and eat and, and your family's going to grow. Um,
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you want it to be good. So, you know, I, you know, I thought about
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this, um, back in 2013. I watched
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then Blazing Goliath filed to be a representative in my county
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back then. And someone said, well, what about you
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running for county commission? And I was just like, that had never crossed my mind
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before. Wow. Wow. But the weird thing is, so I
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was kind of one of those weird kids that followed politics
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from a very young age, from my teens, and it's like devoured
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politics. For whatever reason, it just
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was a thing for me. So I was in the REC for many years and
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yeah, it was an open seat in the district that
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I lived in. And then started talking to some people and
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just learning more about politics
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and running a race and what does a county commissioner do and all these
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things. And as I was gathering information,
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someone had filed for the open seat and then some other people reached
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out. They're like, they didn't care for the person that had filed. So it was
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like, we want you to run. I was like, so it kind
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of clicked and worked real hard. I was outraised by about
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2.5 times what I was able to raise. Wow. And had
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some good information from people who knew about campaigns,
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knew a lot more than I did at the time. And so Um,
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they told me my path to victory was knocking on doors. So that's what
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I did. Community. Knocked on doors. That's right. And I
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had a very simple message. I'm a conservative veteran Republican. Yes, sir. And, uh,
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you know, handed them my palm card with some of the— basically, you know,
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it was just my resume at the time. And, uh, just told
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them, told them, uh, you know, love to have their support in the primary.
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And I won that primary out of, uh, I think it was a little over
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8,000 votes. I won it by 79 votes. Wow,
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79 votes. 79. It was nerve-wracking.
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So with that being said, how has your experience as a state
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representative— what, what have you learned? What have you gained that you're— what are you
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going to take back to your community as a county commissioner? You know, it's helped
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me a lot. You know, it's, it's a, it's a great opportunity, and it's also
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kind of a frustrating opportunity all at the same time, because being at the state
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level, I mean I got to hang out with the governor sometimes and that was
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cool. And I think I can safely say that the governor would recognize me
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if we crossed each other in the hallway. Awesome. So that's great.
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And we had, I think I served with the best governor that the United States
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of America has probably ever had. I'm going to say that for 4 years.
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Wow. And I was honored to be serving with him.
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But then there's times that there's bills that I know that
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I come across and I'm like, I don't think this is a good bill for
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the state of Florida. Yes, sir. And you're encouraged to support it or whatnot,
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or even when you don't vote for it and you just watch it pass and
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it's just like, man, that's going to hurt. That's not going to be good for
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either for my county or my district or for certain
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sections of the state. And I'm like, we could have done better. And that's
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probably one of the biggest differences from county versus state.
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You don't always win the votes on the county level. But you
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get to make your decision and with the best information that you have available
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to yourself. And it's just that it's a different decision-making
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process. Because sometimes you're
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part of the sausage-making process in the state level.
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And sometimes there's benefits to it where it's like, yeah,
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I'm fighting for appropriations too because those are important for your district.
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And you're fighting for the other bills that you personally have filed
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and you're working on those for your district and for the entire state,
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uh, depending on what the bill is. So there's, there's more things happening
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than just this certain vote on this certain issue that usually happens
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in the county. That's awesome, man. It sounds like you
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have a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of experience. Um, what,
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uh, I mean, you were going to have future county commissioners watching this, county commissioners
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who may want to transition into the state level? What's your
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biggest challenges that you've dealt with so far? What have you overcame
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that you can share with others? So I would encourage it.
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You know, I remember I came to a FACT conference. I want to say it
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must have been in 2022 because I had filed, but I hadn't gotten into office
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yet, or maybe in 2021, somewhere in that time frame. I would encourage it.
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You know, we need more local legislators from school
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boards, city councils, county commissions, because you come the
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legislature with a bank of knowledge.
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You know what impact fees are, you understand property tax bills,
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you understand so many more things than a straight
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senator or representative who hasn't had that experience. They got
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to learn that stuff on the fly and it's a different ballgame for some
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of those folks than the folks who come there with experience. And you
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also have some advantages of knowing how to campaign and to carry
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yourself and conduct business as an elected official.
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So I think I missed part of your question then.
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No, I think you answered it perfectly. Yeah. Yeah, there's a
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lot of experience that you can bring and it's different.
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You know, like I said, you're exposed to more things on a state level.
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You're exposed to things in some ways on a federal level because
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some of the bills that you, you may take up a bill because
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things aren't being addressed on a federal level. And there's things called memorials
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where it's something you're trying to do on the state level to say,
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this is a memorial to ask Congress to do something because they're not doing
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it. We have some of those opportunities also.
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So it can be a very unique situation where it
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can be very high profile in what you're doing. 'Cause if you do pass a
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bill that you've, maybe it's your own idea that you've experienced
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on the local level, it hasn't gotten done,
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you're affecting 23.5 million people. 67 counties.
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So it can have a great impact. So with
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that being said, Commissioner, what has shifted your mindset to wanting to go back to
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county government? I know most people, you know, you've already been a commissioner, you've already
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been in the state level. Most people say that, oh, well, I'm done. You know,
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I already did my service. What continues to push you forward and
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continue to power you? The decision
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pretty much comes from— it's never one thing, but I would say the
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prominent thing for me is it's family right now. I'm in a situation
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where, you know, I'm older, some of the folks around
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me are older. You still look young. I'm old. You listen to
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my knees when I stand up. And, you know,
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and then being away so much, especially this last
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year, especially the last 2 years, being away so much, it's taken a
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toll on the family. And there's some people in my immediate
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family that have some medical needs, and if And if I'm not there to help
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them with that, then it falls to someone else. And it's just a responsibility that
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falls to someone else that I don't want to happen. I want to be there
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for that responsibility myself. And because sometimes
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you're just away and it's just like, really? You know, the bad
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things always— the things that happen, they always happen when you're away.
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You know, the washing machine breaks when you're away. You know, someone needs to go
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to the doctor when you're away. None of that happens when when you have the
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time to deal with it when you're at home. And so that's, that's kind of
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the main thing. And there's some certain frustrations. You know, we were able to do
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some really good things under Speaker Renner my first
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2 years in office. And yes, Governor DeSantis was running for president.
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But the— I think the conservative agenda that we put forth in those 2 years
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was not to be touched by, I think, any state legislature
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in the country for a very long time, I think. It was very
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impressive. And I asked Speaker Renner at the time, he was doing roundtables
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with small groups of us. And I
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said, Speaker, how does this compare
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to other legislatures? You always
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see the press will hammer the Republicans on certain things and this and
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that, because that's what the press does. And I'm like, are they even able
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to keep up with what's going on? He said, no. They can't keep up because
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there's usually, maybe it's a handful, 4 or 5 things of hot issues that
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are happening in the state with the bills going through the legislature.
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He's like, we're probably at 12 to 15 or more things that
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are going through the legislature that they just can't even keep up with the questions
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that they're asking the speaker about.
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And it was really impressive and kind
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of an honor, very honored to be a part of that. But things changed after
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that. And that was also, like I said, there's many things that made up the
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decision, but it was kind of frustrating to see the tone
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change where there wanted to be division between—
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they really wanted to be division between the people that elected us from— they
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elected us, the people that supported President Trump, they supported
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Ron DeSantis. And you could definitely see that they tried to divide a wedge
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between Um, those great Republicans that, that are leaders in our
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country. And it's like, I don't get it. That doesn't make any sense to me.
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Um, you're doing it for, for reasons that, that are beyond me,
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maybe personal reasons or trying to move ahead in some way. And,
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and I find that very frustrating. Yes, sir. Unity is always crucial.
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Um, well, that being said, I just want to transition. What is your,
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your favorite accomplishment, your best accomplishment? Uh, what is something
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that you're proud of that you've done in the state level or at the county
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commission You know, I, I point to some of
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the bills that we were passing our first couple years. Um, you know,
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we did a lot of good in law enforcement. So with the illegal immigrants,
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um, we, we did a series of bills toughening up things there. We did a
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series of bills, um, dealing with DEI. Um,
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you know, because it wasn't just in one section of government, it was in multiple
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sections of government. And, and one of the things that I will
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never forget was being on the House floor Because when it came up, I'm like,
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I'm not leaving my seat no matter what. I don't care if I'm thirsty or
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I'm hungry or whatever. I stayed in my seat to watch this because
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I really wanted, you know, Hernando County where I'm from and parts
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of Pasco County was part of my district in the state legislature. It's a deep
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red area. Hernando, Pasco, Citrus, all deep red area. So I don't come
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across people like this, but I wanted to see how
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it would play out. And we dealt with 3 bills. We dealt with men going
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into women's bathrooms. We dealt with gender transition surgeries for kids.
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And then we dealt with drag queen, um,
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performances in front of kids. Where do we go
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from here as a state? You know, whether it be the Republican Party or the
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Democrat Party, uh, where do we go as a unified state of Floridians?
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You know, I see, I see great things for Florida, um,
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because it's booming right now. It's, it's great for Florida. We've had great leadership
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coming from the governor being in charge for 8 years. You know, I think we're
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going to have a great leader, you know, whoever it may be. You know,
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we got some good names at the top of the Republican ticket for
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governor. I think one of those folks is gonna do a great job. He's seen
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great leadership and great agendas.
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So I see good things for that. And, you know, I pay attention
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to some other states. Idaho's done some good things. Texas does some good things.
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Tennessee does some good things. Some other states hopefully
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will turn the corner. You know, maybe some North Carolinas will
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step up. Oklahoma has a pretty good conservative
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legislature. But you always got
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to be aware of the structure of some of those states. How do they do
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things? How do they determine who their speaker is going to be? Texas does
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it like Washington, D.C. does it. I don't agree with that.
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We do it differently here in Florida. The class that comes in chooses their speaker
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for their class. I think there's some positives to that.
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It's not perfect, but there's some positives to that. So really,
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the structure of how states are handling things in the future, I mean,
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California's, they're crazy. So it's
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just like, are those states gonna go crazy? The New Yorks,
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the Californias, Maine is really, really crazy
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too. And you wouldn't think of it. They're like little California.
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That's one thing you get exposed to at the state level. You join some of
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these organizations where you get to network with other legislators
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from around the country, and it's very beneficial to— a lot of them were coming
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to us Florida legislators and say, hey, what was this bill about?
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Tell me about this bill. We heard good things. And that's great that we can
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talk to them about that, but we want to steal from other states too and
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help other states get better. But you know, some of those other states, they may
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go so crazy, um, that more people want to come to,
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to us and the Texases and the Tennessees and the Idahos and Oklahomas.
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So, um, and we may be, we may be
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getting an influx. You know, a lot of people were always scared about, you know,
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New Yorkers coming to Florida. And if you check the voter registration,
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it's, it's the Republicans in those states are coming here because they just, they can't
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stand it anymore. They're too fed up. And it's those people that are coming.
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So, but You know, it's good to keep track of the voter rolls. And so,
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um, so we're a closed primary state. I agree with that. I think that's a
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good policy in, in Florida because why should Democrats
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choose who our Republican nominee should be? So if, you know,
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if you got all the Democrats deciding they want to vote
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for the softest Republican in a race and then the strongest Republican
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can't win conservatively, that's not what we want.
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So I think We got some good structure here in Florida. Some other states may
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need to look at that, which is why maybe, maybe South Carolina should be a
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stronger conservative state. Maybe there's some structural things why that can't happen, but you
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know, they're, they're a very red state, um, many ways. And Alabama,
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Georgia— well, Georgia's got Atlanta, but maybe some other, some other places
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that maybe it's their structure that sometimes that they can't
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quite get to be where they should be. Okay. Yes, sir. And, uh,
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we can go ahead and This is the last question. It's just what
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wisdom can you impart onto a young politician or somebody who's interested in getting into
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politics? So, you know,
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a lot of people— I've seen a few people now that they just want
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to jump right into the campaign. Um,
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I, I would say go do something in life.
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Join the military. Yes, sir. Go, go, go start a business.
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Go work in a business. And this is one thing that I was— I
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had a fundraiser last night and I told some of the folks there a little
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bit about my history. And I'll share this. I went to work
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at a very young age. And I'll blame my parents because they wanted to
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dress me in these horrible clothes. And I'm like, no, I'm going to
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be a better dresser than this, Mom and Dad. You can't dress me in those
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shirts with the waistbands at the bottom of the shirts. I got to
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do better. You know, whatever motivates
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you though. But so, you know, I wanted to work hard and save up some
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money and have some things, whether it's a car to drive or whatever, whatever motivates
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you, but to have some money to do some things. And I
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learned that if I work hard and I help the people around me,
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whether it's an office or what have you, and they respect you,
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they're not always going to be in that position in that job. They may go
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and start another business, or they may go to a higher position in another company.
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Because especially when I started out, you know, that whole go
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get a job and work in a factory, and that factory or that business will
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take care of you, and you're going to get a pension, and you're going to
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get healthcare— it's not like that. That wore away when I was coming up.
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You know, it's more about you go to a company, you'll, you'll get a 401k,
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and, and you can take that to your next company, and you can make more
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money at the next company because Some companies, they just want to get you in
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and pay you a salary and you accomplish the task for them. It's like,
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okay, that's what you want. But then you can move on and
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go to the next company and maybe start your company or maybe someone at that
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company loves you and they're going to start a company doing something because
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they've seen it and they're going to do it better and they're going to do
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it wiser and they'll take you with them. So it's like, be the person that
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someone wants you to start a company with. So be that
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person, and that's a great way to do it. And, and that could be for
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politics also. If, um, if someone's starting their campaign
18:21.050 --> 18:24.947
and, and, um, they're like, man, I really like the way you, you do things,
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you're a hard worker, you show up, you could be their campaign manager. You could
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start as an intern. It's just a great way to do it in life.
18:33.221 --> 18:36.509
And, um, you're gonna find things will come to your way a lot
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easier in life when you're out there working hard. You're gonna grant so many people's
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respect. Yeah. Because one day you'll get the respect of the right person
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and that's going to help you launch to something else. Amen.
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Amen. Uh, definitely get your feet wet first. I take from that.
18:51.381 --> 18:54.943
So, um, uh, Representative Holcomb, thank you so much
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for this interview. We appreciate your time and we hope you have a
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blessed day. Thank you for your service as a Navy veteran. We didn't even talk
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bombs. We could talk bombs too.
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If you want to get into it, go ahead.
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Hey, I'll tell you real quick, um,
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you know, I joined the Navy Reserves as an intel officer,
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um, and I did it to try and make a difference.
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Reservist is a different life, but, um, you know, God bless
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all those people who put on the uniform. Uh, it's not an easy life.
19:24.597 --> 19:28.240
It's not an easy life for reservists, uh, especially, but I was blessed
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to be a part of U.S. Central Command for many, many years.
19:32.027 --> 19:36.151
I also served in an NCIS unit for
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for a few years at the end of my time. It was a really cool—
19:39.005 --> 19:42.309
when you— there's some hard parts to being in the military, but when
19:42.809 --> 19:44.586
you're doing the job, it was really kind of fun.
19:45.516 --> 19:48.884
Deployed to Qatar during Operation
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Inherent Resolve. And well, almost all my time at CENTCOM
19:53.233 --> 19:56.711
was blessed to kind of stay in the same realm of dropping
19:56.807 --> 20:00.078
bombs, creating targets. We call it warheads on foreheads.
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So all of that kind of revolved around that standpoint. So sometimes
20:04.810 --> 20:08.611
in the intel business, you can get off into signals intelligence and human intelligence
20:09.111 --> 20:11.954
and various other things. So I was able to kind of stay in a very
20:14.341 --> 20:17.520
small but broad lane for a while. And that was really kind of
20:17.552 --> 20:21.015
cool to be a part of that. And they do
20:21.515 --> 20:25.033
some really tough things there at CENTCOM. And it's really some interesting things.
20:25.082 --> 20:28.257
You learn a lot. Learned a lot about the Middle East and what's going on
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there. And it's really, really an interesting part
20:32.322 --> 20:34.840
of the world. And it's very active, unfortunately.
20:35.980 --> 20:39.208
But honored to be a part of that and retired March 1st
20:39.708 --> 20:43.479
of this year. Wow. And so focusing on other things.
20:43.784 --> 20:47.332
Yep. Politics being one of them. And how is that— how is your
20:47.397 --> 20:51.298
experience in the military? How has that affected your just
20:52.037 --> 20:55.441
Your leadership abilities, your stances? Like, how has your
20:55.941 --> 20:59.937
military— how has that affected your beliefs? So I'll
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say, first of all, I got a master's degree in intelligence
21:04.290 --> 21:08.013
studies. And what I did my master's
21:08.513 --> 21:12.428
research on was Afghanistan. And so from that research,
21:12.508 --> 21:16.217
I really had a deep, deep love for our
21:16.717 --> 21:19.957
first responders. It really showed me that if you don't have,
21:20.470 --> 21:24.321
if you have a corrupt country, you're going to have corrupt law enforcement.
21:24.866 --> 21:27.915
And if you don't have corrupt law enforcement, if you have corrupt law enforcement,
21:27.995 --> 21:31.557
you're not going to have a good country. It starts with that basic structure
21:32.167 --> 21:36.194
of being able to drive down a road and
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not have to stop at a checkpoint and pay someone money to
21:40.060 --> 21:44.184
continue on the road or be able to drive down a road
21:44.216 --> 21:47.385
and not get shot at or You know, just all these
21:47.885 --> 21:51.359
sorts of things that actually have roads, you know, have— we have—
21:51.472 --> 21:56.732
we take for granted each and every day that can happen in a country during—
21:56.796 --> 22:00.726
in Afghanistan, like during a time of war, or you name Somalia,
22:00.823 --> 22:04.383
the country I studied for a while, and Sudan, and all these places where
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when terrorists are in charge, you're a victim each and every day of your life.
22:08.720 --> 22:12.859
Yes, sir. Another part of the military is you have change of leadership
22:13.359 --> 22:16.134
every few years. So you get to see a lot of different leadership styles.
22:16.231 --> 22:19.024
And so that's helped me from, you know,
22:19.137 --> 22:22.509
being in office and seeing different leaders. And I'm
22:23.009 --> 22:26.523
like, you know, seeing that happen so many times, you're like, I like the way
22:26.844 --> 22:30.087
this person did things here. I don't like the way this person did
22:30.136 --> 22:32.673
things here. I would change it. And it kind of keeps your mind moving.
22:32.721 --> 22:36.028
I'm like, way to help you at least grow mentally about
22:36.060 --> 22:39.741
how you like leadership. That's awesome. And my father's
22:39.773 --> 22:43.070
father-in-law is an Army veteran, did 3
22:43.570 --> 22:46.904
tours. I know he did Iraq, Afghanistan. So my
22:47.050 --> 22:50.878
grandfather also served in Vietnam. So I have deep
22:51.378 --> 22:53.295
respect for our veterans. And again, thank you for your service.
22:54.650 --> 22:56.656
Representative Holcomb, any final words?
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Thank you for the opportunity. You know, God bless our soldiers. God bless those
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people who, You know, our first responders,
23:06.247 --> 23:09.860
we say thank you for your service because they're never going to get a paycheck
23:10.360 --> 23:13.713
that's worthy of the work that they put forth and our military members. So thank
23:14.213 --> 23:17.085
everyone and thank you for being here and doing this because, you know, for our
23:17.585 --> 23:20.874
county commissioners that are working here and the staff that are here and learning about
23:21.374 --> 23:24.487
different things, it's great for them to collaborate. That's one thing that happens
23:24.987 --> 23:28.196
in Tallahassee way more than it does in the county with the Sunshine Law thing.
23:28.550 --> 23:31.763
You know, let county commissioners from one county talk to another county,
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talk to a bigger county commissioner, to a little, uh, county commissioner
23:36.393 --> 23:39.894
from a little county, talk about those things so they can bring ideas back
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to their counties. It's a great opportunity for them. That's right. Unity keeps everything moving.
23:44.393 --> 23:47.687
Uh, so with that being said, we're live again in Orlando,
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Florida at the FAC Annual Conference. Thank you, Representative Holcomb.
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You guys have a blessed day. God bless everybody.