Rene Plasencia

Rene Plasencia was born on January 8, 1973, to a Puerto Rican mother and a Cuban-native father, in Orlando, Florida, and attended Dr. Phillips High School and then the University of Central Florida, where he started the first student-athlete advisory board. In 1996, he graduated with his bachelor's degree in psychology,[3] and then began working as a government teacher for 15 years at Colonial High School. While Plasencia taught at Colonial High School, he became a track and cross-country coach where he had received the nickname "Coach P."[4][5]

In May 2021, Plasencia became the Executive Director of the Florida Veterinary Medical Association, an association that lobbies on behalf of the nearly 6,000 state licensed veterinarians and their staffs.[6][7] He left that position after only five months.

In 2014, incumbent State Representative Joe Saunders, a Democrat, ran for re-election in the 49th District, so Plasencia ran against him. He faced Ed Rodriguez, a retired police detective, in the Republican primary. Plasencia campaigned on his opposition to the Common Core Standards and standardized tests, saying, "We need to give teachers the ability to teach. A lot of what we do is almost clerical work."[8] He ended up defeating Rodriguez in a landslide, winning the primary with 77% of the vote and advancing to the general election, where he faced Saunders. Plasencia argued that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, which Saunders supported, was a "jobs killer,"[9] and praised Governor Rick Scott on "gun rights, economics, taxes, and pro-growth strategies," while also emphasizing that he supported public education.[10] The Orlando Sentinel, while praising Plasencia as a "passionate advocate for education," endorsed Saunders, noting that "public schools already have a champion in Saunders."[11] Ultimately, however, Plasencia defeated Saunders by just seven hundred votes, winning his first term in the legislature with 51% of the vote.

In November 2016, Plasencia was elected as a representative for the 50th district after defeating Democratic candidate Sean Ashby, and succeeding after Republican State representative Tom Goodson,[12] following his term in the 49th District.

Following 2020, Plasencia won against Democratic candidate Nina Yoakum, a full-time substitute teacher, for reelection of the 50th district. Plasencia won by having 57.2% of the votes.[13][14] However in 2022, he resigned for a position as a lead account partner in IBM.[15]

Plasencia is a current member of the Florida Commerce Committee since 2018.[16] He was also appointed as chair to serve in the Florida Workforce Development & Tourism Subcommittee.[17] Plasencia has also pushed towards the Competitive Workforce Act which prevents gender discrimination in the workforce.[18]

During his time in the 49th District, Plasencia defended for 2nd Amendment Rights and had previously received an "A" rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF).[19][20] After the Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting in Parkland, Florida, Plasencia voted for the Florida Senate Bill 7026, along with other Republicans, to ban bump stocks and to raise the minimum age from 18 to 21 to purchase firearms.[21] As of 2018 Plasencia holds a "C" rating from the NRA-PVF.[22]

• Florida House of Representatives
• Florida House of Representatives - Rene Plasencia
• Rene Plasencia for State Representative
• Map of Florida District 50

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Profile on Vote Smart
• Latino Leadership Inc.