Yesterday, Adam Christensen launched a campaign to hold the one statewide office the Democrats have in Florida-- state agriculture and consumer affairs commissioner. (Nikki Fried, the current commissioner, is vying with Charlie Crist for the gubernatorial nomination to take on Rick DeSantis.) In filing, Christensen noted that the post is a cabinet position "that focuses on consumer protections, safeguarding small businesses and family farms from conglomerations, price fixing, and predatory behavior. Good news is, that’s already my day job. When I graduated from college, I started an analytical testing lab to look for fraud in the natural products industry. My specialty was essential oil validation. Since then, I’ve spent the last 6 years protecting suppliers and consumers from overpaying and from getting ripped off by exporters from India, China, and Europe."
Adam comes from a family of farmers who know first hand what companies like Walmart do to small towns. After acquiring a degree in biology, he started his first company, an analytical testing lab specializing in fraud detection in natural products. Not long after, he started a second lab focussed on testing medical marijuana & CBD products to safeguard consumers from contaminants like pesticides and heavy metals.
When he ran for Congress in 2020, which is how DWT first came to know him, he was the youngest Democratic nominee in the country. He's 28 now and the overall policies he's promised to champion involve loosening the grip of large corporations on our towns across Florida, making sure ingredients-- fresh and healthy produce-- for public school lunches are being sourced from local family farms and consumer protection in the medical marijuana industry. He wrote, that "Dominating the [medical marijuana] industry at the moment is a cartel-like structure, handing contracts out to the friends of policymakers-- placing the health and safety of our consumers at risk.
He told me that when he started his testing lab "it became clear very quickly that the entire industry was set up in a way to benefit the friends of the lawmakers who are writing the rules. 2 in 5 Florida lawmakers are millionaires. That’s actually where I met my opponent, Senate President Wilton Simpson, an egg farmer whose net worth has gone up by $20 million since he’s been an elected official. He’s the symptom of everything that’s wrong with our government. Legislation is for sale, and the biggest corporations are polluting our air and water, bulldozing family farms, and profiting off all of it. This position is supposed to protect people from corporations, and now they are trying to purchase this seat. It’s a classic story of David and Goliath."
Please consider contributing to Adam's campaign by clicking here or on the endorsement image, which takes you to the Blue America Florida page.
UPDATE: Adam Withdrew His Candidacy Today
Christensen told his supporters that he "met with the DOS legal team earlier today and they informed us that even though we could run, win the primary and the general we would not be able to be seated because I would be a few months shy of 30 years old. Because of this I have decided to withdraw my candidacy for Ag commissioner... I am now the youngest candidate to have ever run for FL Commissioner of Agriculture… and the shortest!" He told me that he is committed to helping draft another candidate who will run on his issues.