Chris King, a Winter Park Democrat, has added a new dimension to the race for governor by both pulling his party to the left and doing so from a philosophy derived from his Christian faith. Florida Political Profile recently spoke with him about guarding Vince Carter in a high school basketball game, ditching his law school degree to develop affordable housing and diving headlong into politics.
Q: Where and when were you born?
King: I was born at Orange Memorial Hospital in Orlando. … I was the youngest of three boys. My older brothers were much, much older than I was, 13 and 9 years, and I grew up in Central Florida. Went to high school there and actually met my wife when I was a 15-year-old high school sophomore.
Q: I wanted to ask about your parents. Tell me more about them and how they influenced your politics growing up.
King: My dad is David and my mom is Marilyn. My dad, I often say, is like an Atticus Finch-type of lawyer. He’s been a lawyer for about 50 years. … He’s most well known for being asked to take a case called "fair districts," which was a statewide effort to end gerrymandering. My dad was the lead lawyer and sued the state of Florida and won. … My mom has been an advocate for health care access for about 30 years and was an early champion for the hospital system, actually, where I was born and became chairman of the board and served for decades building hospitals throughout Central Florida that cared for the needs of the community.
Q: I read that you were both student body president and captain of the basketball team at Winter Park High School. That’s very impressive, but did you have a good team?
King: Well, we were never as good as I would have liked us to be. I was a Winter Park Wildcat and played four years of varsity basketball. I was 18 when I retired. … When I was a high school sophomore at Winter Park, we actually played against Daytona Beach Mainland, and you will remember that your superstar … was Vince Carter. … At that time, you will remember, he was incredible. And folks would come from all over the state to watch him play. He could jump out of the gym, and I was terrified. I was to be guarding him that night. … I fouled Vince four times that night. He never dunked on me and I had one moment — he beat us by 20 points — but I had one moment where I had him at the top of the key and I kind of juked him and scored and he fouled me, and I had a three-point play and that was the high point of my basketball career.
Q: Let’s turn to your Christian faith. You’ve taken a lot of positions as a Democrat that are very different than the conventional use of Christian faith in politics. You’re pro-choice, supporting gay rights. How did your approach to that evolve?
King: From the time I was a boy, my Christian faith was a huge part of my life. It was during my school years. It was when I went to Harvard University. ... My faith always propelled me to serve others and to care about the needs of folks who’ve not had voice and who need an advocate. So my politics are really a reflection of that. For the last 30 years, I would say that the Christian faith has in many ways been hijacked by a very conservative Republican ideology that is not reflective of a commitment to serve, and care for, and lift up people of all backgrounds. My politics I think reflect a much more comprehensive view of the Gospel of Love.
Q: You went to Harvard, then University of Florida law school. It appeared you were following in your father’s footsteps, and then you only worked in the law for a year or so. Why did you decide to leave that and enter into the business world?
King: Yes, I went to the University of Florida law school and I then say I practiced law for about 12 seconds, but it was a very long 19 months, and I realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do. You know, all through law school, I had this huge entrepreneurial drive, and I also had a real interest in affordable housing. ... I started something called Elevation, which was one part a for-profit company, one part a nonprofit, kind of one part a change-the-world, really a social enterprise, and we’ve grown that now to serving thousands and thousands of people in senior and workforce housing all across the country.
Q: Right before running for president, Barack Obama wrote a book titled “The Audacity of Hope.” I wonder what gives you the audacity to run for governor as a relatively unknown political force?
King: I think to be transformative, which is my mission, you have to have audacity. ... What gives me confidence that my background has prepared me is I believe that I’ve had some extraordinary experiences in some of the very issues Florida is struggling to fix. Take affordable housing. We have a crisis. I’ve been working on it for 12 years, and I’ve made it a forefront issue in this election. The fact that higher education is inaccessible to hundreds of thousands of our students. Well, we’re the candidate with the plan for free community college and trade school, which would be a game-changer in Florida ... . Whether it’s building small businesses and fostering entrepreneurs, I am one. I’m one of the first running as a Democrat in decades.
Q: Did you have a political hero?
King: I would say LeRoy Collins. ... These last couple of weeks I've come out against the death penalty, first gubernatorial candidate in years, or governor, to do something like this. LeRoy Collins was talking about the death penalty and his opposition to it decades and decades ago. He was a man ahead of his time in racial relations and in criminal justice issues. ... He famously said, "I don't have to be re-elected, but I have to live with my conscience." And I think that's something that I spend a lot of time thinking about, every decision that I make.