Hillsborough commission candidates now include comedian Matt The Welder
Three new candidates are officially running for Hillsborough County public office — including a County Commission hopeful from Plant City who has a tractor business and does stand-up comedy.
Matthew Taylor, 34 — stage name Matt The Welder — is challenging Republican Commissioner Michael Owen, an attorney who was elected in 2022.
Formerly a Republican himself, Taylor is running without party affiliation.
A TikTok video shows Taylor in a cowboy hat sitting on the hood of his pickup talking about the insurance crisis, public school students who “think that Ben Franklin was the president on the $100 bill,” government corruption and other subjects.
Taylor recently told the Tampa Bay Times that schools and development are reasons he’s running.
One of his five children attends Robinson Elementary, where he has protested a change that prevents a left turn into the school by northbound motorists. A spokesperson for the school district said a review of the traffic pattern by county staff determined a left turn there backed up traffic and was unsafe. But Taylor says the change now has motorists making illegal and potentially dangerous turns.
Instead of answers, he said, he got “finger-pointing” between school and county officials.
Taylor said he’s also concerned about county land being developed too quickly with no money for infrastructure.
“It’s not going to be build first, infrastructure later,” he said.
He has performed at comedy shows around the southeast, including the Polk Got Jokes Stand-up Comedy Special, according to a YouTube video.
“I reckon politicians are like a pair of shoes,” he said. “You shouldn’t keep them any longer than you keep a pair of shoes.”
Owen, the incumbent county commissioner for the eastern Hillsborough district, said he stands by his record of focusing on public safety, roads and infrastructure.
“I’m glad to have an opponent,” he said. “I think elections are the best report cards you can have.”
In other election news, Republican Melony Williams filed to run against court clerk Cindy Stuart.
Stuart, a Democrat, said she wasn’t surprised to get an opponent given months of talk that Republicans planned to mount challenges in Hillsborough County.
“The party has been talking about us getting opposition,” said Stuart, who was elected in 2020 after serving eight years on the Hillsborough County School Board. “And we’re always prepared for that.” She said she didn’t know much about the new candidate.
Williams responded to emails from the Times but had not answered questions by deadline Friday.
First-time candidate Joseph Taylor, 27, a Democrat who works as a library service and technology guide for the Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library, recently threw his name into the busy District 6 countywide commission race.
He joins Democratic former state Rep. Sean Shaw and Republican Christine Miller, CEO of the Plant City Chamber of Commerce, as well as Republican James Davison and Democrat Mark Nash.
Former Commissioner Mariella Smith withdrew her candidacy for that seat because her husband is ill.
Taylor said via email he’s running because he wants to be “a voice of support for the libraries” and to try to work to improve the lives of Hillsborough residents.
