Denis Ross, who has been in Congress since 2011, represents the conservative 15th Congressional District, which includes parts of Hillsborough and Polk Counties. | AP Photo Democrats hope to steal Ross’ Florida House seat after surprise retirement Florida Republican Dennis Ross announced his retirement today.

Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) joined a wave of retiring House Republicans on Wednesday morning, saying he is leaving Congress because he wants to give another conservative a shot at his Lakeland-based seat.

Ross’s surprising departure was overshadowed by House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision not to run for reelection. So far, 59 House Republicans are retiring as Democrats feel they have the best chance in years to take back the House.


Now Florida and national Democrats are taking a hard second look at Ross’ Republican-heavy seat and calculating whether to build out a ground operation and make a real play for Florida’s 15th Congressional District, which seemed out of reach with the four-term incumbent Ross who previously served as a state legislator.

Ross, 58, told POLITICO that his departure, first reported by the Tampa Bay Times, wasn’t motivated by fear of losing an election to a Democrat in his heavily Republican seat in central Florida. He said eight years was enough in Congress.

“When you start feeling like a stranger in your hometown, that’s when you start saying ‘wait a second.’ There’s no regrets,” Ross said in an interview. “There’s no investigation. No scandal. No nothing. I had a great fundraising quarter. Everything was good.”

But just the day before, one of the Democrats running against Ross, Navy veteran Andrew Learned, had been insinuating on Twitter that Ross was a goner.

“Seriously, I'm starting to get worried about @RepDennisRoss. He hasn't been heard from in over a month. Someone tell him he hasn't retired YET and that he needs to get back to work! #FlipFL15,” Learned wrote April 10.

After Ross announced he was quitting, Learned highlighted his prescient tweet: “My tweets age well...”

But Learned is starved for cash and, as of the most-recent disclosure period ending Dec. 31, had raised just $64,000 to Ross’s $662,000. Still, Learned’s haul was double that of the combined sum raised by the other Democrats in the race: Greg Pilkington, Phil Hornback, Ray Peña and Cameron Magnuson.

While Learned’s profile matches well with the district, Democratic insiders say, they’re also floating the name of Polk County Elections Supervisor Lori Edwards, who ran against Ross in his first congressional race in 2010. Ross only won by 7 percentage points, however a tea party conservative was also on the ballot and sapped votes from him. Edwards, however, told POLITICO she wants to stay in her current job and not run for Congress.

The executive director for the Florida Democratic Party, Juan Peñalosa, said the party has been emboldened by a wave of wins in bellwether contests in the state as well as Tuesday night’s lopsided Democratic victory in a Palm Beach County special election for a state Senate race where Lori Berman won her seat by 50 points.

“The Florida Democratic Party is operating under the premise that no seat is safe in 2018,” Penalosa said. “We were already planning to invest heavily in get out the vote programs to support Democrats in rural counties like Lake and Polk County, and Congressman Ross' retirement gives us even more reason to double down on our efforts in the district to support candidates who stand up for Democratic core values of responsible gun laws, fully funded public education and an economy that works for every single one of us."

The state’s qualifying period to run for Congress runs from April 30 to May 4, so there’s time for other Democrats to get in the race for Ross’s seat.

Ross said he doesn’t have any favorites to succeed him. Already the list of possible successors is long: state Sen. Kelli Stargel, state Rep. Ben Albritton, former state Rep. Neil Combee, who in November was appointed by President Donald Trump as state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, and state Sen. Tom Lee, who told POLITICO he was considering it, and the Republican he beat out for his current seat, former state Rep. Rachel Burgin.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who is popular in the region, was originally rumored, but has tweeted he will “run for a different public office.”

Ross said “there are many great conservatives” he can see taking his place for the largely rural seat that stretches from Hillsborough to Polk counties.

“My biggest concern [about leaving the House] was how my supporters would react because I don’t want to let them down,” Ross said. “But I’m committed to making sure we have a good conservative, pro-conservative successor in my seat. And I’m going to work on that. It is a good seat demographically. It is a conservative seat.”

But he said it was time to leave.

“I got up Sunday morning and I’m reading my emails and the news and seeing what I need to do looked outside and said ‘My God, it’s beautiful today,'" Ross said. "'I gotta go out there and see that.’ And I thought to myself, it’s time. It’s time. It’s time to move on.”

Ross joked that he thought it was a good day to announce he was leaving.

“I figure it’s Wednesday. It’s quiet. I’m gonna tell my staff. And then all of a sudden, I get upstaged by the speaker,” he laughed.