On Thursday July 25, Allison McInnis-Gimbert sent her qualifying papers up to Tallahassee on a Fed Ex plane. Yet, things didn’t go quite like she had planned.

“I woke up the next morning only to have found out that the Fed Ex plane had crashed with my papers burnt to a crisp,” she said. “but I already had a back-up plan to fly to Tallahassee to walk my papers in.”

When arriving at the airport, McInnis- Gimbert was told that her flight was delayed because of the plane crash. So, without any more hesitation she packed up her car and drove from 8:30 a.m. to hoping to arrive at the capital by deadline time: noon.

“I won’t say how fast I was going, but I got there two minutes late,” she said.

But because the governor had changed the qualifying rules, McInnis-Gimbert was still in the game.

McInnis-Gimbert said she felt that her constituents of District 16, which covers part of Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties, needed a choice in the November election.

“My opponent, Jim Sebesta, was going to run unopposed and is a Republican, and I felt that the electorate needed a choice.” she said. “That is testing the will of the people, which is very important, and that is voting.”

McInnis-Gimbert got her aspiration to run for a seat in the state senate by working on numerous campaigns, such as U.S. Senator Bill Nelson’s.

However, at the age of 30, McInnis-Gimbert says she looks around at the younger college students hoping to set an example for them.

“I am a 30-year old mother of two, I got married young, had children young, and I am single now,” she said. “I have a difficult road ahead of me, but it is my will, it’s my stamina, and my desire that will get me into office. And I hope I can give that a little to everybody.”

Some of McInnis-Gimbert’s interests if elected are reform of the Department of Children and Families and the educational system, specifically teacher salaries and Florida’s reputation.

For more information on Allison McInnis- Gimbert’s campaign, call (813) 885-4139 or e-mail her at amgforsenate@aol.com