Nate Douglas, a candidate for the Florida House from Orlando who’s still in school pursuing a graduate degree in data science, says the numbers he’s seeing point to two things: monumental challenges around the climate crisis and a win for Democrats in November looking to address them.
The 23-year-old was born and raised in the small town of Celebration, Florida, the utopian brainchild of Walt Disney himself, built next door to Disney World.
Douglas has collected more than $238,000 in cash through mid-September, a massive number for a state House district race and nearly double his Republican opponent’s take during the same time period.
The young gay Democrat spoke to LGBTQ Nation on National Registration Day from the campus of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, where he was getting out the vote with fellow students.
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LGBTQ Nation: There’s a blue heron in the logo on your website. What does that represent for you?
Nate Douglas: It’s a Sandhill crane, actually, and that was to represent the fact that, first of all, I really like birds (laughing), and second of all, Sandhill cranes are also very much native to the district. So I decided to use something that was local and something that represents progress for the climate.
You graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Food and Resource Economics with a specialization in Agribusiness, and you were elected, while still in college, as a Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor. What first led to your interest in the climate?
When I was just about 17 years old in high school, I joined the Sunrise Movement, which is the youth climate advocacy organization, and climate change is something that really brought me more into the progressive space in politics because, at the end of the day, that’s something that’s going to have a really large impact on everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic status or regardless of their ethnicity or race.
You’re pursuing a graduate degree in Data Science. What does the data tell you about the climate crisis that we’re facing?
Well, it says that if we don’t act quickly, then we’re going to have irreversible damage to our climate across the world. It’s also going to drive a much larger issue here in the United States: we’re going to have deeper economic problems. We’re going to have deeper energy problems. Our immigration crisis is going to get insanely out of control. I mean, people talk about immigration right now — that’s going to get significantly worse if we do not deal with the climate crisis, because these are folks who have nowhere else to go.
How much of the rise in insurance premiums in Florida is due to the fact that the state is just more prone to the effects of climate change than other places, and therefore more expensive to insure, and how much of those cost increases do you lay at the feet of insurance companies trying to take advantage of that fact?
This is a very complicated issue. And something I like to tell folks all the time is, regardless of whether or not an individual or homeowner cares about climate change, or even believes in climate change, there is a group that does care about climate change and that does believe in climate change, and that is our insurance companies.
Insurance companies are using climate change as the reason to drive up our costs, yes, and some of that is reasonable, because obviously, we need to cover the cost of more natural disasters. Since Florida is one of the most catastrophe-prone states in the country, we need to raise premiums at some point.
At the same exact time, however, those same insurance companies are also underwriting Big Oil projects and projects that contribute more to the climate crisis.
So I think we need to really start paying attention to who they are insuring on the other side, how they are driving this climate crisis. We need to stop them from investing in those climate-intensive investments, such as Big Oil projects and pipelines, and we need to start making sure that they lower our premiums here in Florida and that they don’t just abandon Floridians.
What’s the single most important thing the world should do to address the climate crisis?
Invest more in public transit.
You’re running against a Republican incumbent, Susan Placentia, who came to office with just over a 2000-vote majority against her Democratic opponent, Carlos Guillermo Smith, who just won his election to the Florida Senate. Now you’re trouncing her in fundraising. Was her win in the district an aberration? And how important a role will enthusiasm for Kamala Harris play in beating her in November?
So first, to give you some context, this is one of the youngest districts in the state of Florida. The average age is just under 29 years old. And younger voters are less likely to vote than older voters. Everything that happens in this district is a turnout game. This is a blue district, but we have low propensity of turnout, and we need make sure that we energize voters and we get them to turn out.
I’m sitting here on the UCF campus. We’re registering students to vote, and I can tell you right now, unequivocally, we have the energy to win this election. Kamala Harris being at the top of the ticket is a massive help. And then another thing that is a massive help is the Republicans.
We have Susan Placencia, who voted for a six-week abortion ban, and she didn’t even talk about her views on abortion back in 2022. And then she’s also the sponsor of a school voucher expansion bill, which shifts $4 billion away from our public education system to our private education system that’s unaccountable. And then, also she voted for a $1 billion bailout for large insurance companies. Republicans are the biggest help for us this election. They’re what’s going to drive the turnout.
You were in high school when 49 people were killed in the mass shooting at Pulse, a gay club in Orlando. What impact did that have on you and your classmates?
There have been so many. I mean, it made folks fearful, the reality that gun violence can have a massive impact on our families, on our lives, potentially taking our lives. I have a mother who’s a schoolteacher of 25 years, and I’m worried for her every single day that she goes into the classroom.
There is no other developed country in the world that deals with this amount of mass shootings, and it’s because of folks in our legislature, for instance, who have made it easier for people who just shouldn’t have guns to obtain a firearm. It’s also made a lot of us much more active, much more loud in the fact that we need common sense gun laws.
How important is social media in your campaign?
Social media is extremely important. Again, this is one of the youngest districts in the state of Florida. So obviously, the younger you get, the more digitally active you are, the more you’re communicating by social media, the more you see things through social media, and right now we need to make sure that we’re combating the right-wing narrative, and social media is the way that I do that.
Governor Ron DeSantis‘ Don’t Say Gay legislation came after your time in Florida public schools. When did you come out? And how do you believe Don’t Say Gay has affected the kids following you and their comfort with their own sexuality?
It’s hard to think about this. It’s a very emotional question. There is absolutely no room for bullies in our education system, especially when it comes to sexuality. And the gross fact is that the biggest bully that we have right now in our education system is Governor Ron DeSantis and his legislators in the State House who passed the Don’t Say Gay bill.
This has a massive impact on students. It makes teachers afraid to even put a rainbow sticker on their door, to show that they’re accepting and offering a safe space for every student. When I was in middle school and when I was in high school, being the gay kid, I always felt comfortable knowing that there were so many teachers who had those rainbow stickers on their door. They said, I’m accepting of you no matter who you are, no matter who you like, no matter who you love, you could come into this classroom and be treated the same as everyone else.
You’re a first-generation American with immigrant parents. Where did they arrive to the United States from, and how did their upbringing affect their reaction to you being gay?
My dad was born and raised in Jamaica, and my mom came from France. My mom’s always been accepting. She comes from a culture that is much more accepting of LGBTQ+ folks. Now, obviously, my dad’s from Jamaica, which isn’t as accepting of LGBTQ+ folks.
But I remember being a child, and this was during the discussion on gay marriage. And one of the first things I remember my dad saying is, “Why can’t they just leave these people alone?” And, you know, hearing things like that, it’s encouraging, especially as the young gay kid in the passenger seat.
There’s no indication on your campaign website that you’re gay, except an endorsement from Equality Florida. You don’t mention LGBTQ+ rights or issues like Don’t Say Gay. How prominently do LGBTQ+ rights and your identity figure into your campaign?
I mean, constantly. I wear Pride shirts. One of my most popular posts is talking about National Coming Out Day. I go to Pride events from Central Florida, South Florida.
I think it goes without saying that my campaign is a campaign that advocates for everyone, regardless of sexuality, regardless of income. But the issues that I talk about most are issues impacting everyone, and that’s why I want to make sure that my campaign is issue-focused and not solely identity-focused.
Are you seeing anyone now, and what’s dating like when you’re running a political campaign?
Oh, dating is difficult running a political campaign. I mean, I’m not in a serious relationship right now. Could I handle that while being in a political campaign? I don’t know, but we will see. We still have a few days left in the campaign, so who knows what could happen?
Disney has been in the news over the last couple of years. You’re running for a seat in the area, and you grew up in Celebration, which was built by Disney. From your perspective, growing up around that culture, how would you describe Governor DeSantis’ “war on woke” and Disney?
You know, I didn’t spend that much time at Disney World growing up, which is really funny, because both my parents met at Disney, and I was literally born on Disney property, which is what I love to say.
His war on woke is stupid, that’s how I describe it. He was just doing it for media attention. He was doing it for his failed presidential bid. That’s all it was. It was nothing but a massive way to garner media attention, but it had an impact on many people who worked at Disney, for instance, and it’s something that we see with Governor DeSantis time and time again. He is someone who has so much ambition that he doesn’t care about who he has to step over to get to where he wants, and at the end of the day, people like him always fail, like we saw during the Republican primary.
You’ve been a substitute teacher for Orange County public schools in your district. Would you support national mandatory national service for young people in the military or some other form of public service they’re choosing, like the Peace Corps or Teach for America?
No, absolutely not. I mean, it’s not the government’s place to tell students or to tell kids what they should do.
What are you most looking forward to if you win your seat to represent the constituents in Florida House District 37?
I look forward to talking about ways on how to solve our climate crisis here in Florida. I look forward to talking about ways that we could make sure that everyone’s getting around without having to drive everywhere. I want to bring more appropriation funds for public transit. That’s something I look most forward to doing.
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