A week shy of his 67th birthday, J Raul Espinosa of St Augustine announced to Historic City News that he has formed an exploratory committee to consider a run for the US Congress in the newly created Sixth Congressional District, which includes Saint Johns, Flagler, Volusia and Putnam counties.
Espinosa is a small business advocate whose focus has been enabling small, local businesses to compete with larger companies for local, state and federal contracts.
He founded the Fairness in Procurement Alliance and he manages “The Umbrella Initiative” whose mission is “to double the number of small businesses contracting with federal, state and local governments by the year 2020”.
Espinosa said, “Our objective is to assist the 2.4 million Florida small businesses get a fair share of Local, State and Federal contracts through the creation of a procurement portal in the private sector.”
Espinosa reports that he is a member of the Board of Governors of the Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Board of the National Federal Contractors Association as well as a Senior Advisor to the Minority Business Roundtable and the Florida Minority Community Reinvestment Coalition.
According to the announcement, he is a graduate of Texas Christian University, the University of Texas and the NYU Management Institute. “After receiving my MA, I was chosen to work for David Rockefeller at the Chase Manhattan Bank and then for three Republican Presidents; Nixon, Ford and George Bush Sr.,” Espinosa wrote.