Marion County Democrat running for FL House Seat 24 to “save democracy”

Robert L. Shaw, Democrat who will face Ryan Chamberlin in the general election for Florida House seat 24 in November.

Robert L. Shaw is something of a rarity in these parts, a Democrat seeking an elective office in a region dominated by Republican politicians. But the Air Force veteran and first-time candidate sums up his appeal to voters with this simple message: “It’s bigger than you.”

“A lot of people aren’t getting what they need,” the 61-year-old Shaw told the “Gazette” as to why he has decided to run for Florida House District 24 seat. “Politicians are just doing what their party says or what certain people [say], whether they’re far right or far left, and it’s getting out of hand. I want to get back to … being for the people.”

Shaw will face incumbent first-term State Rep. Ryan Chamberlin in the Nov. 5 general election. Neither candidate faced opposition from other members of their parties and thus avoided a primary election in August.

Despite being retired, Shaw said he’s never had a busier calendar in large part because he has become so immersed in his Stone Creek community. In fact, he pointed to the close kinship he felt with his community as motivation to seek office, so he could serve his Republican and Democratic neighbors alike.

Shaw’s most prominent campaign slogan is that he is “fighting for women’s reproductive rights.”

He explained that he chose women’s reproductive rights as a key issue for his campaign platform because of his decades of working in oil refineries, where he said he witnessed firsthand the challenges women faced working in a predominantly male-dominated industry.

The reasons why Shaw moved to Marion County echo those of many other newcomers.

“I’m originally from Philadelphia, and working in Philadelphia, I always knew I wanted to go somewhere warmer. We had an opportunity to go to a warmer southern climate, we went to Houston area I worked there from 2012 to 2022,” said Shaw of what would become his second career. He would spend 25 years working at an oil refinery and being heavily involved in the employee network, which he explained was like being in a union since it involved advocating for employees.

Shaw’s first career, right out of high school, was in the Air Force. He started out working for five years as a security policeman at the Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands and one year at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. Later, he worked as a crew chief on the U-2R/TR-1 spy plane for four years at Beale Air Force Base in California and two years at the Royal Air Force Alconbury base in England. Altogether, he served in the Air Force for 12 years.

Robert L. Shaw

Shaw attributes his initial career path to his time in the JROTC and other practical considerations growing up.

“While in school, we were very poor when I was younger, and a lot of the students there started figuring out, ‘Hey, we can go in the military and get pretty much the same training, and they’ll pay us.’ I was like, ‘OK, so it’s a no-brainer,’’’ he recalled.

But when it came to choosing where he would retire, he said Florida was the most practical state for travel back and forth for his family in Philly, where his four children, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild live.

However, when it came to deciding where in Florida he and his wife Gloria would move, he said, “Ocala is a good area. It’s in the middle [of the state], you don’t have to worry as much with the hurricanes, it’s on high ground so you don’t have to worry about flooding, it’s still close enough to everything” and only an hour or two from larger cities when they crave a taste of city life.

Shaw has lived in Marion County for two years and expressed enthusiasm for the quality of life and active lifestyle he and his wife of 26 years enjoy as residents of Stone Creek, a retirement community. His wife hasn’t yet retired and currently works at Brookdale Assisted Living facility as a caregiver.

He said despite only living in Marion County for two years, he’s had moments where he’s felt concerned about the rapid growth and wondered, “Whoa, where are all these people coming from?”

“And it’s going to keep growing, unfortunately. What I want to do is make sure our infrastructure is right when we do grow that we have the right things,” he said.

Shaw said many Americans have fought for many decades to establish equal voting rights and female productive rights, yet he said, “It seems to me there’s a small minority of far-right people that are driving everybody else, and the other people are afraid to do anything because of what the backlash might be.”

Some of the issues he said people need help from their elected officials include homeowner’s insurance regulations that would impact rate hikes. If insurance companies are able to raise rates at “five times” the rate of inflation, Shaw thinks that legislative measures need to be put in place to curtail that.

Also, he lists improving school resources, particularly increasing funding, as a priority.

“Some of the neighborhoods that I’ve visited so far, they’re building a lot of homes but we’re not building schools,’’ he said. “So, what are we going to do? Where are these people going to go?”

Shaw said Florida needs to attract more quality teachers by making sure their salaries are competititve and making sure their schools are safer.

One of the things Shaw said he liked about the communities going up in the outskirts of the Houston area where he used to live, which he said was also growing rapidly, was that infrastructure seemed to pop up before neighborhoods were approved. He attributed poor planning at the state and local levels as a reason why Marion County’s roads are congested, and said this is another key focus area for him.

On the subject of guns, Shaw says he owns a gun that he keeps at home for protection but believes more training and background checks should be required.

He said realizes Democrats are in the minority in the Florida and Marion County. However, he said he’s cultivated friendships with moderate Republicans and is gaining confidence in their ability to navigate those conversations respectfully.

Shaw, who plays in his community’s softball team, chuckled at the paradox he created for himself prior to his campaign. “I’d go to softball games and the guys would be there and they would start talking politics and I’d walk away because I didn’t really want to hear it.” Then at a softball meeting, Shaw said he raised his hand, and said, “When we’re at the softball field that’s a neutral area (where) we need to not talk about politics.”

“A couple of guys got mad at me, but you know, we don’t talk politics,” Shaw reflected.

But now that Shaw is running for office, he feels he’d risk being accused of hypocrisy if he brought up politics with his teammates. Still, some of his teammates have noticed the campaign shirt he wears on in the neighborhood and have approached him positively with support.

“There are a lot of people that even though they’re Republican, just because they know me and what type of person I am, they said they’re going to vote for me,” he said, adding that he hopes independent voters favor him on their ballot instead of the incumbent Chamberlin, whose platform is more “far right.”

“My plan is to try to get out in front of as many people as possible to just talk to them,’’ he said. “If they talk to me, I think most of the time they are going to say, ‘Alright, this guy is gonna do the right thing because he understands it’s bigger than him and we can vote for him.”

Shaw reports a net worth of $1.2 million in a 2023 financial disclosure. The assets identified include primarily his homestead, which has an approximately $190,000 mortgage, and investment accounts. According to the disclosures, Shaw receives almost $10,000 a year from those investment accounts.

Thus far, Shaw has reported $4,025 in campaign contributions from approximately 43 contributors, mostly locals and the Stone Creek Democratic Club. He’s received no PAC contributions thus far.