Meet Michele Rayner, who could become Florida's first queer woman Senator

Florida Rep. Michele Rayner will try to make history in 2026 as the first queer woman elected to the Florida Senate.

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The Democrat, who just won election to a third term representing St. Petersburg in the Florida House, announced shewill run for an open Florida Senate seat when Democratic incumbent Darryl Rouson retires. She told The Advocate she feels the need to bring her voice to the upper chamber. But while she identifies as LGBTQ+, her first priority will be representing her community in the Florida Capitol.

“I just think it’s a beautiful opportunity to do some real work and continue the work we’ve already been able to do,” she said.

Rayner would be the third out member of the Florida Senate, following Florida Sens. Shevrin Jones, who won election to the chamberin 2020, and Carlos Guillermo Smith, whojust took office last month. As it happens, every Florida Senator from the LGBTQ community to date has been a queer person of color, running counter to conventional wisdom minority communities will refuse to consider out candidates.

That’s no surprise to Rayner.

“Here is the deal,” she says. “There is no one more progressive than an older Black woman, because of where they have lived their lives.”

At age 43, Rayner hardly qualifies as older. But regardless, her eyes have always been on the future.

“I never ran looking at the historical composition of what I could or could not do,” she said. “I always ran with the work I am going to do in mind. Who I am and how I identify, just happens to be part of my story.”

Rayner identifies as pansexual, and she has certainly defended the communityfiercely on the floor, especially as Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantiswaged culture wars against queer Floridians the last few years.

Notably, she’s optimistic, despite Republicans still holding supermajorities in the Florida House and Senate, that could change in coming years following the implosion of DeSantis’ presidential ambitions this year.

“It feels like we are going to restore legislative power back to the legislative branch,” Rayner predicted ahead of Florida’s Legislative Session. “He (DeSantis) is a lame duck Governor now, so we will see how beholden folks will feel to him.”

Important as she looks toward a Senate run, Rayner plans to serve her constituents in part by working with Republican lawmakers in the majority. She has done so routinely already this year, especially after Hurricane Milton struck her urban Tampa Bay district.

She has worked on bipartisan issues with the Republican majority, and last year co-sponsored asocial media regulation that Florida House Speaker Paul Renner made a priority. Notably, that put Renner on Rayner’s side and against DeSantis, who vetoed an initial version of the bill before the House passed another version and put it back on the Governor’s desk and got him to sign it.

“What gives me optimism, for someone who is a Black, queer, cisgender woman, I have been able to work across the aisle and have found common grounds with folks in the majority party,” she said. “I can’t even say we agree on a lot of things, but for many things that matter, there is common ground.”