Senate Democrats Elect Lauren Book as Minority Leader, Jason Pizzo as Leader Pro Tempore

TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – Florida Senate Democrats elected Sen. Lauren Book as Senate Minority Leader and Sen. Jason Pizzo as Leader Pro Tempore for the 2022-2024 term Monday.

Senate Democrats face challenges as Republicans have supermajorities in both the House and Senate. The Senate Democrats lost six battleground senate seats they fiercely advocated for leading up to Tuesday’s election.

Going forward, Book said they now have to move from the campaign to the legislating side of the world. She said they intend to meet their colleagues in the middle to create policy moving forward.

During an interview Monday following the ceremony, Book said they plan to focus on property insurance, affordable housing, and workforce housing.

“Those are things that we all have to agree on and work on. There are things we aren’t going to agree on, there are things we’re going to fight like hell on, and we know that. We’ve seen a preview of what that may be. On the things we can work on, we are working together on and I think that’s what Floridians want and need quite frankly,” Book said.

Book said she knows that Senate Democrats and Republicans will never agree on abortion.

“Fundamentally, those are things that we will never come to the same page on. As a survivor of sexual assault myself, one of the things I will fight for, but that doesn’t mean that absolves anything over here from restricting further our right to have choice – freedom of choice. We’ve got to continue to fight for what that is, but again we don’t have the numbers to do so.”

The Organizational Session for House and Senate members began Tuesday morning.