IBEW member Brian Nathan will represent the Tampa area in the Florida state legislature following an unlikely victory in a close special election on March 24.
Nathan, a Navy veteran and member of Tampa, Fla. Local 915, beat his well-known opponent by just over 400 votes. His campaign emphasized high prices, family-sustaining jobs, and affordable housing.
“The price of everything has gone up but wages have not,” said Nathan, who must defend the seat in November. “Florida is not the cheap paradise it used to be.”
A 10-year member, organizer, and journey-level inside wireman, Nathan said years of lobbying in the state capital of Tallahassee ignited his interest in running for office eventually. A bill rolling back child labor laws was the final straw.
IBEW’s election-year mobilization
Nathan’s victory comes as the IBEW launches its midterm election year mobilization program in key states and districts. The Government Affairs Department will implement its most aggressive ground game to date, IBEW President Kenneth W. Cooper said during a Zoom call to over 320 business managers on March 24, the same day Nathan won his election.
Cooper said members disappointed with anti-labor politicians have been voting them out in special elections from coast to coast. Democrats have flipped 30 legislative seats across the country since the Trump administration took office in 2025.
“Members were promised jobs would be a top priority and that decisions would be made to support working families,” Cooper said. “Just like elections, broken promises have consequences, too.”
More IBEW members run for office
The IBEW is also focused on its own crop of candidates for office.
New York Local 3 member Allison Ziogas is running for the Staten Island and South Brooklyn seat, betting that the high number of union members there will tip the conservative electorate on Nov. 3.
Ziogas has spent more than a decade on New York City jobsites as a journey level inside wireman, before serving as a foreman on major infrastructure projects like reconstruction of the World Trade Center.
To capitalize on growing discontent with high prices and chaotic policies this year, the IBEW will be ramping up its ground game in states and districts once considered out of reach.
On the campaign call, IBEW Political Director Joe Zahorik walked through plans to recruit local-level volunteers and urged business managers to talk with rank-and-file members about issues like wages, benefits, and job security.
“Our numbers and our ability to organize give us a great advantage, but only if we step up to do the necessary groundwork,” he said.
To make running for office less intimidating, the IBEW is developing its own candidate school. Zahorik said the school will be ready sometime in 2027.
Photo caption: Tampa Local 915 member Brian Nathan, center, celebrates his Florida Senate election victory with fellow members on March 24. From left are Tabitha Hunter, Richard Crane, Shawn McDonnell, Nathan, Jonathan Fielder, and Paris Raymond.