st. Petersburg, Fla. (WFLA) – Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and House GOP leadership are at odds.
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It’s a push that some Republicans in the Chamber of Commerce don’t want to see happening. Some critics of the GOP fear it will open “Pandora’s Box” and believe it is unconstitutional. Luna denies these claims because proxy votes were previously used, as during Covid.
“We had members threatened to completely close the floors of our homes, even if they allowed the votes to come to the floor,” Luna said.
The lawmakers then left the Freedom Caucus of the House. It is some of the most conservative members, like Sarasota Rep. Greg Stubuch and the hopeful Byron Donald of Governor. Luna claims that her conservative values have not changed.
“You don’t have to be part of the group yet to maintain your beliefs,” Luna said.
When Luna felt that the resolution of the members’ remote voting house had stalled, she made most members of the house to sign a so-called discharge petition. That’s how you bypass committees and leadership and get the law directly on the floor.
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“Within 24 hours after I was successful, they tried to say they wanted to bring in the laws they had campaigned for,” Luna said.
Speaker Mike Johnson then cancelled other votes for the rest of the week with a thin majority of GOP’s razors. This means lawmakers will wait to hear the bill as it relates to providing evidence of citizenship qualifying for votes.
“The meetings are a bit heartburn because you have a group of people who no longer respect institutional guidelines on how you legislate,” Luna said.
Luna has also responded to critics on other issues in her district. Democrats held two city halls in at least her district. As pushbacks increased over President Trump’s agenda, he was obsessed with national efforts to host City Hall in the Red District. Opponents were critical of the labor cuts and increased tariffs. One was hosted by Luna’s former Democratic opponent, Whitney Fox, and the other included former Republican senator David Jolly.
“When I’m in Washington I’m still meeting with residents and when I get home I can’t exchange meetings, I’ll hold a meeting on Zoom,” Luna said.
Luna is also planning a bigger event to talk and hear from residents that could happen as soon as next month.
“I’ll do a teletown hall where I can talk to over 60,000 people. I think that’s important. And yet I can open it up for questions,” Luna said.
Some people in Tampa Bay are concerned about rising costs due to the overall tariffs issued by President Trump. Luna said she trusts the president’s handling of the economy and agrees to the recently announced mutual tariffs.
“If there is a country like China that places 100% tariffs on US imports, it will be difficult for our business to sell overseas,” Luna said. “In the long run, from our perspective, they’ll actually make goods cheaper, because those countries will help them remove tariffs and strengthen their economy.”
The lawmaker also said she is still working to help tax taxes on tips moves to end FEMA’s 50% rules.
