Kurt S. Browning is an American politician, who served

Secretary of State of Florida The secretary of state of Florida is an executive officer of the state government of the U.S. state of Florida, established since the original 1838 Constitution of Florida, state constitution. Like the corresponding officials in other states, th ...

and

Superintendent of Schools In the American education system, a superintendent or superintendent of schools is an administrator or manager in charge of a number of public schools or a school district, a local government body overseeing public schools. All school principal ...

for

Pasco County Pasco County is a county located on the west central coast in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2024, the population of the county is 656,851, making it the tenth-most populous county in the state. Its county seat is Dade City, and its largest c ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. First elected as a member of the Democratic Party in 1980, he became a Republican in 2002.

Career

Browning's political career began in 1975 when he worked in the Pasco County Supervisor of Elections office. In 1980, he was elected as the Pasco Supervisor himself, as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

. At 22 years old, he was the youngest county elections official in Florida history. He served in that position for 26 years, until his appointment as secretary of state. During that time, Browning also served as the President of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, as a member of Governor Jeb Bush's Task Force on Election Procedures, Standards and Technology. He also served as a member of the State Planning Committee for the

Help America Vote Act The Help America Vote Act of 2002 ( Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States)107–252 (text) (PDF)), or HAVA, is a United States federal law, which was authored by Christopher Dodd, and passed in the House 357-48 and 92–2 in the Senate and was ...

. Browning changed his party affiliation to Republican in 2002. In November 2012, Browning was elected

superintendent of schools In the American education system, a superintendent or superintendent of schools is an administrator or manager in charge of a number of public schools or a school district, a local government body overseeing public schools. All school principal ...

for Pasco County Schools, he served as superintendent for 12 years. Browning retired as superintendent of schools on November 19, 2024.

Secretary of State

Governor-elect

Charlie Crist Charles Joseph Crist Jr. ( ; born July 24, 1956) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th List of governors of Florida, governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 and as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. represen ...

announced Browning's appointment as Secretary of State in December 2006. Browning served in that position until April 2010, when he resigned to comply with state retirement pension compensation laws. While out of office, he was honorary chairman of the failed campaign opposing two anti-

gerrymandering Gerrymandering, ( , originally ) defined in the contexts of Representative democracy, representative electoral systems, is the political manipulation of Boundary delimitation, electoral district boundaries to advantage a Political party, pa ...

constitutional amendments on the 2010 ballot, the "Fair Districts" Amendments 5 and 6. He was re-appointed Secretary of State by Governor

Rick Scott Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers; born December 1, 1952) is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and United States Navy, Navy veteran serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of F ...

in January 2011. During his two stints as secretary, Browning oversaw the state's defense of several lawsuits challenging Florida's voting laws. He also oversaw the transition from using touchscreen voting machines to paper optical scan machines, despite being he was a strong advocate of touchscreen technology as Supervisor of Elections. Responsible for the Division of Corporations, which manages corporate filings, Browning eliminated paper records and instituted electronic filing for businesses, including a searchable public website.

Superintendent of Schools

Browning announced his resignation as Secretary of State on January 11, 2012, effective February 17, 2012. Several weeks later, he announced that he would run for Pasco County Superintendent of Schools. He was elected to that position on November 6, 2012, after defeating two-term incumbent Heather Fiorentino in the Republican primary. After three terms on November 19, 2024, Browning retired from Superintendent of Schools. Browning was succeeded by John Legg.

Background

Browning is a native Floridian. He received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

from the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...

. He has been involved in the Pasco County community for much of his career, including service as President of Downtown Dade City Main Street, Inc., and involvement with organizations including the

Boy Scouts of America Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...

and the Pasco County

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit organization, nonprofit fundraising affiliates. Prior to 2015, United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public. Individual Un ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Browning, Kurt S. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Election people Florida Republicans Secretaries of state of Florida University of South Florida alumni People from Dade City, Florida