Her friends call her Andi and everyone is a friend.

Andi Poli has lived in Port St. Lucie for nearly 30 years. She met and married her husband, John, here. She had her two daughters here. She has worked in adult and children’s mental health and foster care. She has volunteered here. Her daughters go to school here. She earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Florida State University. She earned her master’s degree in public administration from Nova Southeastern University. Andi has dedicated her professional and personal life to improving St. Lucie County and its residents. She wants to expand that work to Tallahassee as your next State Representative in District 84.

She is educated.

She is accomplished.

She is compassionate.

She is dedicated.

She is the Smart Vote for Florida House, District 84.

Read her story below.

Born into a midwestern family of baseball players, Andi Poli knew long before Hollywood that there’s no crying in baseball. There’s strength, fortitude, and speed, but no crying.

So when the Florida Legislature began throwing political beanballs at those around her – women, teachers, and working families, to name a few - she stood up and yelled foul.

Though an established leader in the local Democratic party, Andi’s work in politics took off in earnest when Floridians Protecting Freedom called for volunteers to get abortion rights on the ballot in Florida following the disastrous fall of Roe v. Wade.

But her journey began long before the conservative US Supreme Court usurped the rights of half the nation’s citizens. This is Andi’s story:

She moved to the once sleepy little bedroom community of Port St. Lucie in 1996, but she was raised in Springfield, IL. Her mother was a guidance counselor and, before that, a teacher who began her career in the 1970s and before Title IX started to level the playing field for girls and women in sports. She was part of the effort that secured those opportunities in Andi’s hometown, making it possible for her daughter to play volleyball and basketball and to run track.

“She taught me a sense of community, generosity, and the idea that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem,” Andi says.

As a single mother, Andi’s mom raised her to be a champion of the underdog, to work hard, diligently, and for the greater good – all qualities she, in turn, learned from her father. This successful small-business owner set up a shop in Springfield after WWII. He and Andi’s grandmother were raised on farms in western Missouri during the Great Depression. They passed down lessons in fiscal responsibility and the power of money to make life better for others.

Indeed, Andi’s midwestern work ethic roots run deep and are a big part of who she is today.

Like many of the men in his family, Andi's father was a baseball player. Baseball is why Andi ended up in Port St. Lucie in 1996 when the New York Mets drafted her little brother out of high school. She followed him to spring training and never left.

“It’s from my father and brother that I learned dedication to a dream and a vision of something bigger,” she says.

She visited Port St. Lucie to watch her brother play in his rookie season and fell in love with the environment, the beach, the laid-back lifestyle, and the freedom of Florida to live out your best days.

However, like most people, Andi’s life hasn’t always been easy.

She is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of family acquaintances – a far too familiar story in today’s world. Andi struggled with alcoholism for nearly a decade before – as she puts it – “getting into enough trouble to realize I needed to make a change.” She often says that she is not proud of her behavior at that time but considers herself lucky to have experienced it.

She doesn’t shy away from telling people that while suffering from alcoholism, she got two DUIs.

“They were both foolish decisions, but that second one was a wake-up call, and it saved my life,” she says.

August of this year will mark her 20th year of sobriety.

Andi discovered a deeper understanding of life and a greater purpose while in recovery and working through AA’s 12-step program. Those lessons and the support of John Poli, her husband of 20 years, allowed her to evolve into a better version of herself. She applied the trauma of her abuse to develop greater compassion for others and the wisdom of recovery to dedicate herself to helping others uncover a better version of themselves.

She’s dedicated the past 20 years to service and others. She is the contract director for one of the state’s 20 child welfare networks, has presided over several local consequential service organizations, and, in her crowning glory, she is the mother to two teenage daughters and stepmother to a beloved son.

Serving on the PTO in the public school system has given her a front-row seat to the classroom's confusion and distrust state leaders have created. In contrast, her work in the foster care system has given her a window into the suffering that failed economic policies and self-serving laws have caused working families.