Lori Berman

Democrat for State Senate

“I am fighting for a Florida where every woman has the right to make her own choices about her own body, where every child can feel safe from gun violence at school, where every voter can exercise their right to freely cast a ballot, where every person is free to express their gender and marry the partner they love, and where every senior can afford a well-deserved retirement.” – Sen. Lori Berman

Lori Berman

Democrat for State Senate

– Sen. Lori Berman

Meet Lori

Lori is a lifelong Democrat who has fought hard for progressive values during her twelve years in the Florida Legislature. She has a proven record of success built on prioritizing people over special interests. Lori’s priorities include protecting access to abortion, safeguarding voting rights, addressing climate change, growing jobs and fighting for commonsense gun violence prevention measures.

Ensuring Quality, Affordable Healthcare

In the Legislature, Lori has led the fight to ensure access to quality, affordable healthcare for all Floridians. A signature piece of her legislative agenda, first as a State Representative and now as a State Senator, has been the effort to expand Medicaid coverage to nearly 500,000 low-income, uninsured Floridians. We live in one of only twelve states refusing to expand Medicaid, despite the fact that it would save lives and the federal government would pay 90% of the cost. While Republicans put partisan politics over our wellbeing, Lori will continue her fight to fill the Medicaid coverage gap.

As a breast cancer survivor, she understands that access to healthcare is a life-or-death issue. That’s why every year, she sponsors legislation to prohibit insurers providing mammogram, breast imaging and breast ultrasound coverage from charging higher co-payments for follow-up exams. In 2019, Lori filed legislation to create a long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) pilot program for women in Duval, Hillsborough and Palm Beach Counties. The program aimed to provide women with greater access to safe and effective contraceptive care. Breaking down barriers preventing Floridians from accessing the care they need continues to be one of Lori’s top priorities.

Fighting for Women’s Rights and Access to Abortion

Lori has long fought to protect access to abortion as well as women’s rights. In the House, she passed legislation banning employers from discriminating on the basis of pregnancy and introduced a bill to ensure women receive equal pay for equal work. She also led the charge for Florida to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution. In the Senate, Lori has sponsored bills to protect women and children from domestic violence, lower the cost of diagnostic breast cancer testing, and require private lactation spaces in courthouses for mothers.

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Lori immediately sprang into action and has been among our state’s most vociferous proponents of the effort to guarantee access to women’s reproductive healthcare. She has introduced legislation to repeal our state’s 15-week abortion ban and instead codify into law the protections formerly guaranteed under Roe, earning her the endorsement of Planned Parenthood.

Fully Funding Traditional Public Schools

Under Republican rule, Florida has fallen to 44th in per-pupil spending and 49th in average teacher pay. By contrast, the state ranks first in offering private school vouchers. This is fundamentally wrong. Providing a high-quality public education is one of our state’s core responsibilities, which is why Lori has called out and opposed the GOP’s expansion of vouchers. She is dedicated to ensuring that public school teachers, administrators, support staff and nonpartisan school board representatives have every resource at their disposal to provide students with a top-notch education. Lori has also proposed legislation aiming to award and retain high-performing teachers and address our state’s woeful teacher shortage.

Protecting Voting Rights

Voting rights are the foundation upon which American democracy is built, allowing for civic participation and ensuring a biennial check on those elected to serve us in government. Through their largely successful efforts to clamp down on voting rights, Florida Republicans have flipped the board on democratic norms, constitutional mandates, federal law, minority representation in government and public accountability.

While rightwing extremists have focused on ways to prevent people away from casting their ballots, Lori has fought to guarantee all eligible Floridians the right to vote – and thereby ensure the health of our democracy. She has supported efforts to make it easier to vote by mail, increase the number of polling locations, expand access to ballot drop boxes, extend voter registration deadlines, institute same-day voter registration and automatically register voters when they obtain their driver’s licenses.

Growing the Local Economy

First as a State Representative and now as a State Senator, Lori has promoted legislation allowing and encouraging the private sector to do what it should: grow jobs and increase wages. She has proudly supported investing millions of dollars in workforce development programs, which provide technical education and employment services to Florida residents. Lori has also proposed legislation to jumpstart Florida’s clean energy sector and make our nation less reliant on fossil fuels imported from places like Russia and Saudi Arabia.

She passed legislation to build the famed FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, a 160-acre spring training complex for the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals, creating hundreds of jobs and drawing tourism. She has championed funding for vocational programs, trade schools and public institutions of higher education in order to create a pipeline of qualified applicants who are fully prepared to enter the workforce and ensure our state’s economy continues to grow.

Addressing Climate Change

Florida is on the frontlines of climate change and sea-level rise. Tropical storms and hurricanes have intensified in the last 20 years, posing existential threats to our communities and spiking the cost of property insurance for consumers. Rising seas have heaped tremendous pressure on infrastructure and placed millions of coastal residents in harm’s way. Lori understands the role government must play in responding to theses crises before it’s too late.

That’s why she passed a constitutional amendment that was ultimately approved by voters to make solar energy more affordable, de-carbonize our way of life and make us less dependent on fossil fuels. She co-sponsored a law that provides state and local governments a projection of the expenditures needed to improve climate resiliency. Lori has also sponsored legislation to incentivize solar energy in our schools and require Florida to reach 100% renewable energy generation by 2040.

Preventing Gun Violence

Lori has fought tirelessly to address the tragic and worsening gun violence epidemic. In the House of Representatives, she was the original sponsor of Florida’s Risk Protection Order (RPO) bill, which allows law enforcement to remove firearms from those who pose a threat to themselves or others. After the horrific school shooting in Parkland, she worked across the aisle to include her RPO bill into the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act of 2018, a bipartisan school safety and gun violence prevention package.

Named as a Gun Safety Champion by the statewide gun safety organization Ban Assault Weapons Now, Lori fully supports outlawing assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in Florida. She has cosponsored legislation to do so and has also proposed legislation that would remove firearms from the possession of domestic abusers and expand Florida’s RPO law to allow family members to petition the courts for firearm removal.