Tampa Bay 28 invited more than 200 candidates running in the August 18, 2026, primary election across our five-county area to submit the following: a candidate photo, a 100-word biography, and responses to three questions:
- Why are you running for office?
- In your own words, what differentiates you from your opponents?
- Explain what you see as the most important issue facing our community and how are you uniquely qualified to address that issue?
The following candidates responded to our questionnaire.
Tony D’Arrigo
Background (provided by candidate)
Tony D'Arrigo is an independent candidate for Florida's 13th Congressional District. A small business owner, Tony has spent his career in hospitality management and building businesses from the ground up. He grew up in a lower-income household and has lived the real-world consequences of broken systems including job loss, a cancer diagnosis, and crushing healthcare costs that most politicians have never faced. Tony is a published author, entrepreneur, and independent thinker who refuses party money and corporate influence. His campaign is built on transparency, constitutional values, and practical solutions that actually work for everyday Americans.
Why are you running for office?
Because nobody in Washington is actually solving anything — they're performing. I've lived paycheck to paycheck, fought a cancer diagnosis with limited coverage, and watched politicians on both sides use real people's suffering as a talking point. I'm running because I'm tired of waiting for someone else to do it. I'm not a career politician. I'm a small business owner and a Floridian who's been through it, and I believe that matters more than any party affiliation.
In your own words, what differentiates you from your opponents?
I'm not bought. I don't take dark money. Every dollar in my campaign is traceable and transparent, and my constituents have direct access to me; not a press secretary, not a handler, me. My opponents are partisans. I'm not. I don't vote the party line; I vote for what works. I've lived the healthcare crisis, the housing crunch, and the economic squeeze that my district deals with daily. That's not a campaign message, that's my biography.
Explain what you see as the most important issue facing our community and how are you uniquely qualified to address that issue?
Healthcare. Full stop. Florida's 13th District has working families one diagnosis away from financial ruin. I know that personally; a 2012 coma, a 2022 cancer diagnosis, a 2023 TWO BROKEN LEGS injury. Without the ACA, I would have been destroyed financially. I understand the system from the inside as a patient, not a talking point. I support expanding coverage, de-privatizing hospitals, and protecting the ACA while pushing for real cost reform. I'm not beholden to hospital lobbyists or insurance PACs. That independence is exactly what's needed to get this done.
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