Holly Merrill Raschein
| Holly Merrill Raschein | |
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| Member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 120th district |
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Assumed office November 20, 2012 |
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| Preceded by | Ronald Saunders |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 16, 1980 Anchorage, Alaska |
| Political party | Republican |
| Alma mater | Florida State University (B.S.) |
| Profession | Consultant |
| Religion | Baptist |
Holly Merrill Raschein (born December 16, 1980) is an American politician, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 120th District, which includes Monroe County and southern Miami-Dade County, since 2012.
Raschein was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to the state of Florida in 1999 when she started at Florida State University, where she graduated with a degree in political science in 2003. During her time as an undergraduate, she began working as at Robert M. Levy & Associates, a state government relations firm in Tallahassee. After her graduation, Raschein began working as a legislative aide for State Representative Ken Sorensen, a Republican. When Sorensen was unable to seek another term in the legislature in 2006 and Ronald Saunders was elected to replace him, Raschein continued working in the office, despite the fact that Saunders was a Democrat.
In 2012, following the reconfiguration of the state's legislative districts and following Saunders's decision to run for the Florida Senate rather than seek re-election, an open seat occurred in the reformatted 120th District. Raschein opted to run for the seat, and faced former Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson, the 2010 nominee, in the Republican primary. She was able to defeat McPherson comfortably, winning 66% of the vote to his 34%, and advanced to the general election, where she faced Ian Whitney, the Democratic nominee. Over the course of the campaign, the two candidates staked out positions in opposition to each other. Raschein supported private school vouchers while Whitney did not; Whitney supported the expansion of Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act while Raschein opposed it, noting, "I am all for health care. But I don't know how the states are going to be able to pay for the expansion of Medicaid. The devil is in the details. How are we going to pay for that? We don't want to cut education anymore, social services can't be cut anymore. I am concerned about how we are going to fund it." Despite the competitive nature of the election, Raschein and Whitney maintained mutual respect and kindness for each other, with Whitney noting that the two of them got along "very well" and Raschein calling her opponent "a very nice guy." Ultimately, Raschein narrowly defeated Whitney, winning her first term with 52% of the vote to his 48%. In doing so Raschein followed in the footsteps of her great-grandfather Hartley Hendrick Hethcox, who served in the Florida House of Representatives in the 1940s and was a County Commissioner in Lake County.
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