Fitzgerald has filed to run next year as a Democrat in District 15, seeking to challenge the incumbent, Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Tampa. Now living in the Tampa area, Fitzgerald is the first Democrat to enter the race.
Fitzgerald makes it clear that she will lean heavily on her experience of losing her Lake Wales position following an arrest as a major element of her campaign. In a section of her campaign website titled “Her origin story,” she claims that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd colluded to have her removed from her elected position, calling it “the biggest DeSantis scandal never told.”
Fitzgerald, 43, filed her statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission on Sept. 7. She had announced her plan to run in an interview with the Lake Wales News published in July.
District 15 encompasses northwest Polk County, including most of Lakeland west of U.S. 98 and South Florida Avenue, as well as parts of Hillsborough and Pasco counties. Lee, Florida’s former secretary of state, is in her first term.
A photo on her campaign website shows Fitzgerald with a bald head. The Lake Wales News reported in July that she opted to shave her head after a medical condition caused her to lose hair.