By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Ty Appiah has never held political office, but the conservative Bronson resident sees his outsider status as an advantage in the race for the Florida House of Representatives District 22 seat.
Appiah, a Republican, discussed his outsider status at the Republican candidates’ forum in Cedar Key on July 22 when asked if he ever held a post as an elected official.
“I have not. I feel that is an advantage. Personally, I think we need more political outsiders to get into the legislative process. I think we need more fresh faces, different faces instead of people who are rooted in here, and are established for 100 years plus. I think we need change in our community and our district,” Appiah said.
Appiah’s opponent in the Aug. 23 Republican primary, Republican Chuck Clemons didn’t attend the Cedar Key candidates’ forum. Clemons is an experienced legislator but he is not the incumbent on the ballot.
The redistricting process moved Joe Harding, the incumbent House member from District 22 to another district. There is no incumbent in the House District 22 race. Levy County is entirely in District 22.
Appiah said he is a husband and a father of three. He is a home school teacher and a United States Air Force veteran. He was a medic in the military. When he got out of the service, he became a nurse and still works as a contractor providing nursing services.
“I can see my whole adult life has been about serving my community,” Appiah said.
Questioner Stoney Smith noted that Appiah’s opponent wasn’t participating in the forum, so Appiah had the forum all to himself as far as District 22 was concerned.
Smith asked Appiah how he felt about a new 6 percent sales tax on e-commerce imposed by the Florida Legislature as of July 1. It amounts to a tax on companies that do business on the internet.
“As a conservative, and my opponent is a conservative as well, I think the message for most of us conservatives is we are opposed to tax hikes of any sort usually in most cases, and that was a huge tax hike,” Appiah said. “It was well over a billion dollars if I’m not mistaken. That was one of the largest tax increases in Florida, so I am adamantly opposed to that.”
Smith asked Appiah how accessible he would be if elected to the House District 22 seat.
“Everybody that knows me and has gotten a card from me knows that my personal phone number is on there. You will call and you won’t get an assistant picking up the phone and answering the question you have. I’m a straight shooter,” Appiah said. “I’m really not a big talker. There have not been many times when I did public speaking at events. I’m more about action. If you call me, you get me on the phone I’m very accessible. I do volunteer events. I’ll even help you with your vehicle. I’m a part-time mechanic too. I live in Levy County. I live in Bronson.”
“If you’re elected, will this be your full-time position?” asked questioner Parks Wilson.
“Yes, absolutely,” responded Appiah.
“So, you won’t have another career, another job outside of this office?” Wilson asked.
“My full-time campaign – I do that 40 hours a week – I’m a nurse as well and I do that as well, but because of my job, I’m a contractor, I can travel all around the state of Florida, so I can make my own schedule. It’s actually very lucrative for me,” Appiah said.
“With you being a nurse, would you support or oppose expanding workers’ compensation benefits to cover non-physical ailments such as stress and depression?” Smith said.
“I am against more regulations on small businesses. Personally, part of my election bid was having owned a small business, an airb&b (short-term rental property). I actually had the government tell me what I could do with my business, with my own private property,” Appiah said. “It was one of the things that spurred me into this race. Generally, I’m going to be against having more regulations on small businesses. I think we need to be doing more to help small businesses.”
“Do you support or oppose more state unfunded mandates?” Smith said.
“I’m against mandates, so that’s definitely no,” Appiah said.
“We’re always saying there’s another state mandate,” Smith said.
“Well, that’s an absolute no. I think state mandates are antithetical to our constitutional approach,” Appiah said, drawing applause. “I’m absolutely against that. Ask me about the red flag laws.”
“Talk a little about the red flag laws. You got 30 seconds,” Smith said.
“One of the reasons I’m running – these red flag laws — you can call a police officer or call a neighbor and you can say Ms. Betty is insane and I think she has weapons. Police officers can petition a court to take away your weapons without due process. I am adamantly against that. Chuck Clemons voted for that. It infringes upon our 2nd Amendment, our 4th Amendment, and our 14th Amendment rights,” Appiah said.
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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt July 22, 2022; Posted July 28, 2022
