‘I don’t agree with my mom’s politics’

Don’t vote for Stargel, GOP candidate for Congress, her daughter says on social media

A daughter of state Sen. Kelli Stargel is urging Floridians not to vote for her mother, posting a social media video that slammed the Lakeland Republican’s stance on LGBTQ and abortion issues.

Hannah Stargel, 28, uploaded the TikTok clip as her mother faces a hotly contested campaign for U.S. Congress, becoming the second Stargel daughter to publicly oppose her political positions.

The video titled “do not vote for the worst mom ever” had garnered more than 16,700 likes as of Monday.

Hannah Stargel, who is gay and a registered Democrat, criticized her mother’s support of a 15-week abortion ban and a bill that barred transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports.

“I don’t think she really has a right to tell you or anybody else who can and can’t be a mother, because she wasn’t even a mother to her own children,” Stargel said in the video.

She dived into her upbringing, accusing her mother of “putting politics before everything else” and saying she sent her to a facility for troubled teenagers when she was 15.

Kelli Stargel issued a brief statement in response to the video: “I love my daughter with all my heart.”

This isn’t the first time Stargel, a mother of five, has been publicly opposed by one of her children. Another daughter, Laura Sivels, wrote a guest column in May 2021 for the Orlando Sentinel urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto the ban on transgender athletes in youth sports.

Kelli Stargel sponsored that legislation, which DeSantis signed into law.

Reached by phone, Hannah Stargel said she is not on speaking terms with her mother and plans to continue opposing her campaign.

“I don’t agree with my mom’s politics,” she said. “I am in the LGBTQ community, so this is personal to me.”

Kelli Stargel is running in a crowded Republican primary for Congressional District 15, which includes parts of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties. Other candidates include former Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee, state Rep. Jackie Toledo, R-Tampa, and former U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, a Lakeland Republican.

Stargel was elected to the Florida House in 2008 and then won a seat in the Florida Senate in 2012. Her husband, John Stargel, served in the Florida House from 2002-2006 and is now a judge.