TAMPA, Fla. – James Judge, a 37-year-old native of the Tampa area and a local businessman, entered into the race for Florida’s 14th Congressional District as a Republican candidate against Democrat incumbent Kathy Castor, his campaign announced publicly on Wednesday.
“I am excited to publicly announce my candidacy for U.S. Congress against Ms. Castor,” Judge said in a news release Wednesday. “We have many problems facing our local area and our nation, and career politicians like Ms. Castor, who think they can walk all over our freedoms, need to understand who they work for and that restricting liberties is fundamentally un-American.”
According to the website for the Federal Election Commission, Judge’s committee officially filed on December 15 and raised more than $100,000 in the final 16 days of 2021.
“Everyone said I should wait until January and that we could not fundraise in December,” said Judge. “Well, you’re going to learn quickly that I’m not a conventional candidate and I’m not a politician. I am a Christian, husband, veteran and a native Floridian, and I hate where I see this country headed. Ultimately, I decided I could no longer sit by and watch our country suffer any longer.”
Judge, who was born in Clearwater, Florida, attended Skycrest Christian School, Oak Grove Middle School, Dunedin High School and graduated from Eckerd College. From 2003-2007, Judge was in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he served in Operation Iraqi Freedom aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Adak from 2004-2005, and later in Miami as a public affairs specialist from 2005-2007.
From 2010-2011, Judge served at the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command under General David Petraeus in Kabul, Afghanistan as a spokesman for NATO and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Following that assignment, Judge returned to Tampa where he began consulting and later founded Judge Public Relations, a PR and marketing firm headquartered in Tampa, which supports businesses across the U.S. from a variety of sectors including food-and-beverage, hospitality, retail sales, sports, human medicine, veterinary medicine, technology, counter-terrorism and defense.
“At Judge PR, we advise hundreds of businesses and their leadership, and I plan to bring many of those proven strategies to Washington, where I will work to lower taxes and strive to support economic policies to help bring this inflation under control,” said Judge. “It’s undeniable, the out-of-control spending and paying people to not go to work has got to stop.”
In addition to his business work, Judge spearheaded the effort to bring back a historic Coast Guard cutter, which oversaw waterborne rescue efforts on 9/11, and founded the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Adak Historical Society, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving U.S. Coast Guard and armed forces history.
He also volunteers and provides services for several charities and non-profit organizations. Judge has helped to raise more than $1 million for pet charities, including Frankie’s Friends, which is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.
However, Judge is perhaps best known locally for his involvement as one of the founding members and spokesman for the Skyway 10k. To date, the Skyway 10K has raised more than $2 million for military families with 100 percent of registration fees being donated to the Armed Forces Families Foundation.
In 2015, Judge married his wife Danielle after several years of dating. Danielle is the founder and owner of Rowdy’s Pet Resort, a dog daycare a boarding facility near Apollo Beach. The Judges are avid animal lovers and together, they have four dogs, three cats, three horses and 10 chickens.
Judge is a proud member of the NRA, Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion.
The Judges are also active members at Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa.
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