Following the Money Around Susan Frantz: The Republican Political Network Behind the HD 78 Candidate

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Susan Frantz is running for Florida House District 78 promising to lower costs, fight overdevelopment, fix Florida’s insurance crisis and bring accountability to Tallahassee.

But a review of her campaign-finance records reveals a campaign operation that looks considerably less like an independent political insurgency and considerably more like a participant in Florida’s established Republican political infrastructure.

While Frantz may have not violated campaign-finance law but it does show is a dense network of political committees, industry groups, professional political operatives and campaign consultants surrounding her campaign.

For voters who want to know who has access to their future representative, the money trail raises a straightforward question:

Is Susan Frantz an independent voice for Fort Myers, or is she another candidate plugged into Tallahassee’s existing political machine?

The campaign-finance picture

Frantz’s campaign has reported approximately $83,561 in contributions and $115,882 in expenditures in the currently available 2026 data. Her contributor list includes individuals, businesses and political committees. (Transparency USA)

Among the organizational donors are political committees representing:

insurance;
electric cooperatives;
cattle and agriculture;
lobbying and government relations;
telecommunications;
conservative political organizations;
legal and professional services.

A $1,000 contribution is not, by itself, a large political contribution. The significance comes from who the donors are and what interests they represent.

That distinction matters. A $1,000 check from an industry PAC does not prove that a candidate will vote for that industry’s agenda. But it gives voters information about which organized interests are willing to invest in the candidate.

Insurance: Frantz’s signature issue meets the insurance industry

One of the clearest intersections is insurance.

Frantz has made fixing Florida’s insurance crisis a central campaign issue.

On July 31, 2026, her campaign received $1,000 from Insuring Florida’s Future, a political committee whose 2026 contributors include Allstate Insurance Company ($20,000), GEICO PAC ($10,000), Progressive Insurance Company ($10,000), and the Committee of Florida Agents ($10,000). (Transparency USA)

That gives voters a simple relationship to consider:

Insurance companies and insurance interests → Insuring Florida’s Future → Susan Frantz

The contribution does not mean Frantz favors insurers over consumers. But it makes her campaign’s insurance platform worth examining closely.

Agriculture and land use

On July 31, Frantz also received $1,000 from Florida Cow PAC.

Florida Cow PAC is deeply tied to the cattle and agricultural sector. In the 2026 cycle it has received money from cattle operations and agricultural businesses including Arcadia Stockyard, C & B Cattle of Hardee, Turner County Stock Yards, Rowland Cattle Co., Bear Hill Cattle Co., First American Land & Cattle and Seminole Feed. (Transparency USA)

Historically, the PAC has distributed more than $1 million, including substantial contributions to Republican organizations and candidates, the Florida Cattlemen’s Association and agriculture-oriented political organizations. (Transparency USA)

This matters in Southwest Florida because agricultural and development interests intersect on questions involving:

land use;
water;
wetlands;
conservation;
environmental regulation;
property rights;
development.

Frantz’s campaign simultaneously promises to “Stop Overdevelopment, Preserve Lee’s Way of Life.” But it doesn't answer what Frantz consider “overdevelopment,” and what happens when development, agricultural landowners and environmental interests disagree.

Electric utilities and infrastructure

Another July contribution came from Florida ACRE, which contributed $1,000 to Frantz.

Florida ACRE is deeply connected to Florida’s electric cooperative industry. Its 2026 funding includes approximately:

$58,497 from America’s Electric Cooperatives PAC;
$30,894 from America’s Electric Cooperatives;
$25,000 from the Florida Electric Cooperatives Association;
$3,700 from Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative;
$2,900 from Pike Corporation;
$2,200 from Lee Electrical Construction LLC. (Transparency USA)

Florida ACRE has also distributed substantial sums to Republican legislative committees, including $50,000 to the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee and $25,000 to the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee. (Transparency USA)

The connection puts another major industry around Frantz’s campaign:

Electric cooperatives → Florida ACRE → Susan Frantz

For Southwest Florida voters, that potentially matters when Tallahassee considers:

electric rates;
grid reliability;
hurricane hardening;
renewable energy;
utility regulation;
transmission infrastructure.

This raises concern as electric companies seek higher consumer prices and rake in higher incomes with high executive pay. When electric utilities and cooperatives come to Tallahassee asking for changes, whose interests will Frantz put first?

The lobbyist connection

On July 27, Frantz received $1,000 from The Southern Group of Florida.

This donor deserves special attention because The Southern Group is part of Florida’s lobbying and government-relations world, not simply a conventional political organization.

Its political committee reported more than $1 million in 2026 contributions. Its major contributors include:

Airbnb — $423,000;
Leo Technologies — $135,000;
Orange Barrel Media — $60,000;
Florida Insurance Council Political Committee — $50,000;
TECO Holdings — $50,000;
Bluenest Development — approximately $41,667;
Alliance for Healthcare Access — $35,000;
CGL Companies — $35,000. (Transparency USA)

The committee has distributed money to Republican candidates and political organizations, including $100,000 to Building a Brighter Future for Florida, $70,000 to Jennifer Canady and $50,000 to Florida Business Leadership. (Transparency USA)

The Florida Division of Elections identifies The Southern Group of Florida Political Committee as an active political committee, with Adria Cavany as chair and Rich Heitmeyer as treasurer. (Florida Division of Elections)

That makes the contribution more interesting than its $1,000 size suggests.

The donor sits at the intersection of lobbying, corporate interests and political campaigns.

The SIMwins connection

The most consequential part of the story may be the campaign’s relationship with SIMwins, a major Florida Republican political consulting firm.

Transparency USA’s current 2026 data show SIMwins receiving approximately $3.58 million from Florida political candidates and committees.

Its largest payors include:

Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee — $1.31 million;
Republican Party of Florida — $540,710;
Citizens Alliance for Florida’s Economy — $203,472;
Conservatives Standing Proudly for Common Sense — $180,000;
Unifying Leadership for Florida — $180,000;
Florida Farmers and Ranchers United — $158,463;
Friends of Carmine Marceno — $120,000. (Transparency USA)

The payments are not merely historical. For example, the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee paid SIMwins $580,575 on March 2, 2026 and another $339,955 on March 19. (Transparency USA)

Frantz’s own campaign also reports expenditures to SIMwins.

That means the company managing or providing campaign services to Frantz is simultaneously a major vendor throughout the Florida Republican political ecosystem.

There is nothing inherently improper about this. Political consultants routinely work for multiple candidates and committees.

But the relationship becomes more interesting when the firm’s clients overlap with Frantz’s donors.

CAFE: the money behind the money

One of the most important committees in this network is Citizens Alliance for Florida’s Economy, or CAFE.

In 2026, CAFE has reported approximately $843,082 in contributions and $962,919 in expenditures. Its largest contributors include Randy Fine, South Florida Solutions PC, CDR Enterprises, Chad Chronister, Florida

Influence, Florida Courage and First Coast Sunlight. (Transparency USA)

CAFE’s expenditures include:

$203,472 → SIMwins
$200,000 → Conservative for Florida
$200,000 → People for Integrity in Government
$125,000 → Building a Brighter Future for Florida
$75,000 → Keep Florida Winning. (Transparency USA)

And Conservative for Florida is itself an active Florida political committee, with Thomas Piccolo as chair and Noreen Fenner as treasurer. (Florida Division of Elections)

This matters because Conservative for Florida is a donor to Frantz.

So the broad financial pathway looks like:

CAFE

↓ $200,000

Conservative for Florida

↓ $1,000

Susan Frantz

At the same time:

CAFE

↓ $203,472

SIMwins

while:

Susan Frantz

↓ campaign expenditures

SIMwins

That is not proof of a prohibited arrangement.

It is, however, a remarkably tight intersection of candidate, PAC and political-consulting relationships.

The Millner question

The campaign-finance administration adds another layer.

The Florida Division of Elections’ campaign-document archive for Frantz’s account shows two separate “Candidate Appt of Campaign Treasurer” documents received June 2, 2026, in addition to two earlier appointments filed March 12. (Florida Division of Elections)

The June 2 filings identify Michael Millner and Debbie Millner in the campaign’s treasury paperwork.

That matters because the Millners have longstanding roles administering Florida political committees.

The significance is not that professional campaign treasurers work for multiple political organizations. That is common.

The significance is that the people handling Frantz’s campaign finances overlap with a broader political-finance ecosystem that includes PACs and consultants also connected to Frantz.

That is a legitimate transparency question:

How independent is a campaign when its financial administration and political consulting are embedded in the same professional network that operates other Republican campaigns and committees?

This is bigger than one candidate

The strongest evidence that this is an established political infrastructure—not something created for Frantz—is CAFE’s historical record.

Since 2017, CAFE has reported more than $10.7 million in contributions and $10.7 million in expenditures.

Its historical contributors include the Republican Party of Florida, Leadership for Florida’s Future, Florida Courage, Chad Chronister, Conservatives for a Better Florida, the Voice of Florida Business PAC, Watchdog PAC and Disney Worldwide Services. (Transparency USA)

Its historical expenditures include more than $2.1 million to SIMwins and more than $1.57 million to Strategic Image Management, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican organizations and other political committees. (Transparency USA)

In other words, this is not simply about Susan Frantz.

It is about how modern Florida campaigns are increasingly financed and operated through overlapping networks of PACs, corporate donors, consultants and professional political operatives.

Frantz is one candidate inside that system.

What the records do—and don’t—show

There is a temptation in campaign-finance reporting to turn every connection into an allegation.

The records don’t justify that.

They do establish:

Frantz receives money from organized industry and political committees.
Insurance interests have contributed through Insuring Florida’s Future.
Agricultural interests have contributed through Florida Cow PAC.
Electric-cooperative interests have contributed through Florida ACRE.
A major lobbying/political organization, The Southern Group, contributed to Frantz.
Frantz’s campaign pays SIMwins.
SIMwins receives millions from Republican political committees.
CAFE is a major funder of Conservative for Florida and a major SIMwins client.
Conservative for Florida contributes to Frantz.
Two Millner treasurer filings were received by the state for Frantz on June 2.

The records do not establish:

that Frantz has violated campaign-finance law;
that a donor received a quid pro quo;
that SIMwins illegally coordinated campaigns;
that the Millners improperly handled campaign funds;
that any donor controls Frantz’s legislative decisions.

Those distinctions are important.

They also make the legitimate questions harder to dismiss.

The question for HD 78 voters

Frantz’s campaign message is built around outsider politics: lower costs, less government, stopping overdevelopment and fighting for families.

But the campaign-finance record presents a different picture.

Around her campaign are:

Insurance companies.

Electric cooperatives.

Agricultural interests.

Real estate and development interests.

Lobbying organizations.

Legal and professional-services businesses.

Conservative PACs.

The Republican Party’s campaign infrastructure.

And one of Florida’s most prominent Republican political consulting firms.

None of those relationships is necessarily improper.

But they raise a question that voters are entitled to ask:

Who has access to Susan Frantz before she ever takes office?

And perhaps the most important follow-up:

When Fort Myers residents and powerful Tallahassee interests want different things, who will Susan Frantz listen to?

That is ultimately what campaign-finance disclosure is supposed to help voters determine.

The money doesn’t tell voters how Frantz will vote.

It tells them who is investing in having a seat at the table.

Sources & records

Florida Division of Elections — Susan Frantz campaign documents: The state’s archive shows the March and June 2026 treasurer-appointment filings for Frantz’s campaign account. (Florida Division of Elections)

Florida Division of Elections — Campaign Finance Database: The state describes its database as a representation of filed campaign-finance reports and recommends cross-referencing database results with the original reports. (Florida Department of State)

Susan Frantz campaign finance: Current contributor and expenditure totals and organizational donors. (Transparency USA)

SIMwins: Current 2026 political-committee payments to the firm. (Transparency USA)

Citizens Alliance for Florida’s Economy: Current and historical contributions and expenditures. (Transparency USA)

Insuring Florida’s Future: Current insurance-industry contributors. (Transparency USA)

Florida Cow PAC: Current cattle/agriculture contributors and historical political expenditures. (Transparency USA)

Florida ACRE: Current electric-cooperative contributors and political expenditures. (Transparency USA)

The Southern Group of Florida Political Committee: Current contributors, expenditures and state committee registration. (Transparency USA)