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FOR FLORIDA HOUSE, DISTRICT 89

DEBRA TENDRICH

VOTE

FOR FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
District 89
To lean more about me, click the button below!

2024 Election Dates - Mark your calendars!
 

August 20th, 2024 - Primary Election

November 5th, 2024 - General Election


Vote-By-Mail

If you want to Vote By Mail, you must re-register to receive your mail-in ballot.

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Click the link below to check your voter status, re-register for Vote-By-Mail, or register to vote.

Teachers For Tendrich

Teachers For Tendrich is a grassroots campaign that is being spearheaded by both retired and active public school teachers who are not happy with our current legislation and what is happening in Tallahassee regarding our public education system.

 

Debra Tendrich is running for the Florida House of Representatives, and supporting the public education system is a top priority for her. Teachers For Tendrich will help show solidarity in supporting a candidate who will be a true champion in Tallahassee and support our public school educators, support staff, and future leaders.

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Please click the link below to fill out the Teachers For Tendrich survey and endorsement form.

Take Part in Something Great

PLATFORM

As your candidate for Florida House, I believe that it is important for you to know where I stand on topics that affect our daily lives. Together, we can ensure that all Floridians can have a safe and equitable place to live, work, and play.

  • Education

  • Housing

  • Women's Right To Choose

  • Gun Violence Prevention

  • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

  • Mental Health

  • Food Insecurity

  • Economic Opportunities

  • Immigration

  • Criminal Justice Reform

  • LGBTQ+ Rights

  • Environment

  • Animal Welfare

  • Reversing Tort Reform HB-837

TO SEE MY PLATFORM, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN

EDUCATION

Education is the biggest equalizer; creating equity in the public education system is crucial. It is imperative that we provide opportunities for all students to learn life-enhancing skills, and about our many cultures and the contributions made by them throughout history.

 

Any curriculum that disavows true American history fails to deliver a complete education.

 

  • Eliminate educational and cultural censorship in curriculum and supporting literature. Ensure availability of African American studies, gender studies, Judaic studies, and all other diverse and cultural education. Support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within public K-12 and extending to the collegiate levels. Adults should be able to decide what to study with their own funds. To do otherwise takes away the competitive edge of Florida's education system for students, educators, funders, and future employers. 

  • Create real-life skills and financial literacy trainings to prepare students for their adult lives. 

  • Staff schools with bilingual and multilingual educators and administrators to assist the children and their families in transitioning to a predominately English-speaking environment.

  • Create guardrails around education vouchers, to end the deliberate starving of resources to public education in favor of for-profit institutions.

CLICK TEACHERS FOR TENDRICH TO LEARN MORE

HOUSING

With the rising costs of living, property insurance rates, rental prices, and all other expenditures, the average Floridian is not able to sustain housing, including home ownership. Shelter is a basic need, and creating security for Floridians to know they are safe in maintaining and keeping their dwellings is critical. Therefore, we much achieve the following:

 

  • Create more affordable housing, including workforce housing.

  • Regulate and create standards for property insurance rates and rental prices.

  • Create community benefit requirements and accountability systems that compel real estate developers to invest in local communities and infrastructure.

  • Assist senior citizens and families who are being priced out of home ownership.

  • Review and revamp the current rental assistance and down payment programs to ensure they are meeting the new economic needs of Floridians.

WOMEN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE

A woman’s body is sovereign and sacrosanct to her, and to her, alone. No government has the right to dictate what a woman does with her own body. Together, we can create a gender-just world where women - not politicians - can make their own healthcare decisions. 

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  • Create a safe place for women and healthcare practitioners to make personal medical decisions without government interference. Women must be able to seek and receive healthcare in a safe place in which healthcare practitioners do not operate in fear that allows government to dictate personal and life-saving treatments.

  • Remove the fear from healthcare providers and allow them to create appropriate treatment plans for their patients without government punishment and retribution. The providers are the experts - not the legislators.

  • Reproductive rights are women's healthcare rights, and are fundamental to a woman's rights in totality. We must create policies and practices that provide protection to ensure and enforce all of these rights.

  • Create programs to allow women to access affordable preventive care as well with preventative education.

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Criminal Justice Reform

The Criminal Justice System is comprised of law enforcement, the courts, and the corrections system. It is designed to ensure public safety, enforce the law, provide just punishments for criminal and unlawful behavior, work towards controlling and preventing crime, and be fair and impartial. Without question, there are disparities within our judicial system. Together, we can take a more practical and equitable approach to the enforcement and punishments of crimes to address overcriminalization, mass incarceration, and unequal sentencing for Floridians.

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  • Improve restorative justice to keep people from re-entering the judicial system after reentry into society.

  • Reinstate the right to vote once someone is re-entered into society, their civic duties should not be encumbered.

  • Reduce and eliminate unequal sentences and fines.

  • Create programs to train law enforcement in dealing with individuals who struggle with mental health.

  • Bridge the gap and build trust between the community and police through encouraging and incentivizing community policing programs.

  • Create and analyze the racial impacts of proposed and active legislation - along with using racial impact statements to help detect potential ramifications before adopting new policies and laws.

  • Evaluate the mass incarceration problem in Florida along with the over-criminalization of nonviolent and minor drug crimes.

  •  Expand the pretrial intervention and diversion programs.

  • Create more juvenile and youth programs for the purposes of creating pathways for success and crime prevention.

The US economy was built on segregation and the exploitation of people of color, from slavery to the Jim Crow laws, which contributed to the inequalities and inequities within America. Florida's current administration has pushed us back in time, instead of helping us advance forward. In addition to the economic imbalances, the inflated costs to live and operate a business have created financial hardships and instabilities. Together, we must work towards strengthening the economics in Florida - for all Floridians. These are some elements of a lasting economic recovery in Florida.

 

  • Create pathways to jobs through trade and skill acquisition, beginning in primary school and extending to adults seeking to train for new workforce opportunities that provide higher pay.

  • Create a mechanism of support for small and minority businesses. This includes the ability for small and minority businesses to compete fairly and equitably in contract bidding.

  • Create and enhance programs to assist small businesses in establishing credit, including microloan programs.

  • Create fair wage standards for employment. A minimum wage does not equate to a living wage.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

Diversity is a strength of our America because it includes all different races, ages, genders, religions, abilities, sexual orientations, and all other diverse backgrounds. Without the sum of all the cultures who have arrived on our shores, enriched us with their presence, and made contributions to America, there would be no American culture as we know it today.

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Diversity is the composition of everyone and includes all groups of people, without any exceptions.

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Equity provides fairness, access, and opportunity that supports, rather than diminishes the advancement of all people, including education, employment and upward mobility, criminal and civil justice, commerce and finance, healthcare, the environment, transportation, and all other life-sustaining infrastructures.

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Inclusion is the intentional action to allow everyone to be seen, heard, and considered, which creates a safe environment that treats everyone as a stakeholder and provides opportunities for everyone's participation and input.

 

  • Create a baseline education of what DEI really is.

  • Extend DEI throughout our public education system, our workforce, and throughout all aspects of the community to build trusting communities and safe spaces for all.

  • Create cultural training programs for those holding leadership positions and extend those trainings to all staff positions.

GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION

Gun violence including mass shootings, accidental shootings, and intentional shootings affect all Americans. Carrying a gun is a huge responsibility in which proper training including storage, handling, transportation, and how to safely use the gun in a dangerous situation for self-protection is critical for all gun carriers.

 

  • Gun regulations do not get in the way of law-abiding Americans of owning and consuming a weapon. It only adds a safety process and adds a sense of responsibility and accountability prior to owning the gun.

  • Require permits to carry concealed weapons, along with background checks and instructional courses.

IMMIGRATION

The new legislation, SB 1718 has instilled fear in immigrants, along with their families, friends, businesses, and with those who provide social services to this population. This bill has already caused numerous immigrant families to leave Florida and will lead to increased economic hardships and broken families. Families will be afraid to take their sick children to hospitals, attend schools, and even work. Businesses, especially in the hospitality, agriculture, construction, and landscaping industries are concerned about their workforce.

 

Additionally, many of the children of these families were born here and are at risk of entering the already overloaded foster system or leaving the country if their parents are deported. These are hardworking, law-abiding, families, they are our neighbors, and they are people- just like you and me, whose only crime is being undocumented.

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  • Do not use law enforcement to enforce immigration.

  • Advocate with the Federal Government and US Representatives to create better and more humane immigration laws and pathways to citizenship.

LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

The compilation of people of different genders, identities, and orientations have always existed and are part of the fabric of American life. Yet now, more than ever, this group of people, our neighbors, are being marginalized. Individuals should not be targeted for being themselves and whom they choose to love, instead we can advance LGBTQ equality. Laws and policies should not be designed to infringe on the rights of people in life and love. Together we can work toward the rights, dignity, and well-being of the LGBTQ+ people, families, and communities and strengthen their connection to the place they call home, Florida.

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  • Allow individuals and healthcare practitioners to make personal and nondiscriminatory medical decisions without government interference.

  • Provide policies that provide meaningful and life-saving protections to the LGBTQIA+ communities. This is to be extended across all infrastructures including, but not limited to, employment, housing, healthcare, education, legal systems, and child welfare systems.

  • Support LGBT cultural competency training programs.

MENTAL HEALTH

Mental health involves emotional, psychological, and overall well-being within family units and socially and affects how people feel, think, and act. Mental health conditions range from mood disorders, depression, personality disorders, anxiety, psychotic disorders, and PTSD. Affecting numerous individuals and families right here in the state of Florida, working towards solutions and opportunities for treatment is imperative.

 

  • Remove the negative stigma of mental health.

  • Increase education and awareness around mental health.

  • Provide police training on dealing with individuals with mental health.

  • Increase opportunities for and availability of mental health treatment and care for both the youth and adults. The lack of resources for youth struggling with mental health leaves them in vulnerable situations without proper care.

ENVIRONMENT

Florida is known for its year-long enjoyable weather, beautiful ocean fronts, and exotic wildlife. Floridians love to live here, and tourists love to vacation here. To maintain our beautiful state which we all love so much, we must work together to maintain and preserve our environment. From water quality to sea level rise, from habitat and wildlife loss to climate change, creating greener and healthier environments will improve the quality of life for all Floridians.

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  • Work on environmental protection programs, incentivization programs, and regulations in correlation with development.

  • Establish programs for businesses to go green. Encourage businesses to uphold environmentally friendly business practices.

  • Provide support for small agriculture producers.

  • Provide education around reducing, reusing, recycling, and repairing, energy preservation for homes and businesses, renewable energy options, wildlife preservation strategies, and overall greener living.

  • Establish clean energy standards.

  • Assess and evaluate air and water quality

ANIMAL WELFARE

People are not the only ones who need protections. Our pets, wildlife, and livestock do too.  All animals require cruelty-free environments and creating legislation to ensure these protections are imperative. With the huge demand for factory farming, there has never been such a massive need for legislators who care about the welfare of our animals.

 

  • Establish policies that require high welfare farming.

  • Create education about food waste. Reducing waste, will reduce the amount of meat produced by farmers.

  • Work with experts to create programs and policies for overall animal welfare and protections.

REVERSING THE TORT REFORM

The Tort Reform, HB-837, is an anti-consumer legislation that is gift-wrapped for insurance companies.

Ultimately, this tort reform hurts a victim's ability to be made whole and puts more power in the hands of insurance companies. If the consumer's obligation is to pay their bill in order to be protected, the assumed reciprocal obligation is to make the consumer whole after an accident/injury. HB-837 allows insurance companies to not be held responsible for their own negligence, which negatively affects the consumer while solely benefiting the insurance company.

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Things to consider:

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  • This legislation did not reduce insurance premiums in Florida. In fact, the only reduction in payments were awarded to the insurance company- and none toward the consumer.

  • In addition to consumers paying the highest amounts in premiums, insurance companies are also protected from having to pay claims for injuries and property damage.

  • There is no protection in the law for people injured in car crashes as there is no mandatory bodily injury coverage.

  • Allows insurance companies to escape their accountability of negligence which is now passed on to the consumer. Remember, if a consumer is negligent and doesn’t pay their bill, they receive immediate consequences- no coverage, however, if the insurance company is negligent- they face no consequences.

  • Affected consumers are not only insured individuals, but corporations also lost protections.

  •  LOPs have been regulated and reduced significantly, reducing doctors' willingness to treat under the Letter of Protection to those who cannot pay upfront for their medical care costs, putting the providers at more risk.

  • This bill legislated insurance companies out of any corporate liability.

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