Former Disney executive files to run against Orlando-area Rep. Amesty
ORLANDO, Fla. — A business executive and political newcomer has filed to run against Orlando-area state Rep. Carolina Amesty, who has faced questions about her credentials and actions at her family-run university.
Leonard Spencer of Gotha filed on Wednesday to run for the Florida House against Amesty, saying he wants to lower insurance rates, restore abortion rights and improve access to mental health care.
“These are some of the reasons I feel I would be a great candidate and I would represent District 45 well in Tallahassee,” Spencer said.
A Democrat and first-time candidate for public office, Spencer is the only opponent so far to file against Amesty, a Republican who is finishing her first term in office. If no one else enters the race before the qualifying deadline next month, the two would face off in the Nov. 5 general election.
They’ll vie to represent a district that takes in much of west Orange County, including Disney World, and part of north Osceola County. Republicans have a slight registration edge in the district, accounting for 35% of voters, while Democrats comprise 31% of the district’s voters.
Spencer, 52, moved to Central Florida in 2005 when he accepted a position with The Walt Disney Company, where he worked for more than 15 years, starting as a senior financial analyst and ending as the director of supplier diversity and sustainability. Since 2021, he’s worked at Amazon, where he’s a senior manager of supplier engagement.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from Tuskegee University and a master’s in business administration from the University of Alabama.
Amesty, 29, has been the subject of two Orlando Sentinel investigations during the past year. The first story detailed how the freshman lawmaker’s family-run university and shuttered fast-food restaurant were delinquent on taxes and utility bills, how she had not been truthful about the success of her businesses when she ran for office in 2022 and how the university falsely claimed on its website that it had Ivy League-educated professors.
The second story, published in March, revealed Amesty, in her role as an administrator for her family’s university, notarized an employment form for a man who said he never signed the document. While Amesty said in a signed affidavit sent to the Sentinel in January that she saw the man sign the form the day she notarized it, three handwriting experts consulted by the Sentinel for its story said the signature on the employment form likely wasn’t his.
State authorities are investigating whether Amesty violated Florida’s notary laws after a reader filed a complaint based on the Sentinel’s reporting.
During her first campaign for the Florida House, Amesty frequently touted her role as a vice president at Central Christian, although she is no longer an employee there, her attorney told the Sentinel earlier this year.
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