Capital Tiger Bay Club Hosts
Democratic Candidates for Congressional District 2
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Capital Tiger Bay Club continues its 2026 Primary Debate Series on Tuesday, August 11, as we host the four qualified Democratic candidates for Florida’s 2nd Congressional District ahead of Florida’s August 18 Primary Election.
This seat, currently held by Neal Dunn, is open following his decision to retire after serving since 2016. Florida’s 2nd Congressional District is the largest congressional district in the state by land area and includes all of Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Taylor, Wakulla, and Washington counties, as well as portions of Walton and Lafayette counties.
Candidates will discuss their vision for the district, key federal issues impacting the region, and why they are seeking the opportunity to represent Congressional District 2 in the United States Congress. As the second and final debate in Capital Tiger Bay Club’s 2026 Primary Debate Series, the program provides members and guests with an opportunity to hear directly from the candidates one week before the Democratic Primary.
In the week leading up to the event, members will have the opportunity to submit questions for consideration by moderator James Call of the Tallahassee Democrat.
We hope you will join us for this important and informative program.
About the Candidates
Yen Bailey
Yen Bailey is a lifelong daughter of North Florida and a Tallahassee resident. The daughter of Vietnamese refugees, Yen was raised on the values of hard work, service, and resilience. Her father, a South Vietnamese Air Force pilot, flew refugees to safety as Saigon fell, while her mother escaped Vietnam on a fishing boat under fire before the family eventually made the Florida Panhandle their home.
Inspired by her parents’ belief in the American Dream, Yen devoted her career to public service. After graduating from Tulane University and Florida State University College of Law, she served as a Senior Attorney with the Guardian ad Litem Program advocating for abused and neglected children and later spent more than 13 years as an ethics attorney with The Florida Bar. When her father’s health declined, she shifted her career to care for him.
Yen and her husband, Steve, a lawyer, FSU professor, and former Army Green Beret, are raising their two sons in Tallahassee with the same commitment to community service that shaped her own life. Together, they volunteer at food banks, help build wheelchair ramps, and support immigrant families across the Panhandle. Yen has also given back through civic leadership. She co-founded Every Vote Florida to ensure all Floridians have a voice in our elections, and she served on the board of the Friends of the LeRoy Collins Public Library System.
Today, Yen is running for Congress to fight for the families and communities that have always been her home.
Brice Barnes
Brice Barnes is a Tallahassee mom of three, a non-profit leader, and a lifelong advocate for people with disabilities and women’s healthcare who is running for Congress.
Brice has spent her life fighting for families – not just talking about problems, but solving them. Recently, as President and Board Chair of Independence Landing, Brice oversaw the funding, building, and operations of the first affordable housing community in Northwest Florida for people with disabilities to live independently.
She was a leader and National Fundraising Chair of Floridians Protecting Freedom, a non-partisan group that advocated to limit government interference in women’s healthcare.
She is running for Congress to deliver capable, courageous, and principled leadership for North Florida families.
Amanda Marie Barnes
Born at the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, Amanda comes from a military family dedicated to service. She attended FSU for undergrad and graduate school, where she studied international affairs, economics, emergency management, and public administration. As a graduate student, she was recruited by the largest implementing partner for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which the Trump Administration and DOGE dismantled early last year. Over the past decade, she served as an operations director and pricing expert, supporting programs that delivered lifesaving HIV/AIDS and antimalarials globally, designing famine monitoring programs, and notably, leading contract negotiations to provide critical cybersecurity services in Ukraine after the Russian invasion. Earlier this year, she and her husband welcomed their first child into the world. He is her daily reminder of what is at stake. Amanda has fought real fraud, waste, and abuse during her career. She looks forward to bringing efficiency to government spending, passion for serving the American people, and vision for a brighter future for the next generation to Congress.
Nic Zateslo
Nic Zateslo is a husband, Dad, Eagle Scout, and entrepreneur running for Congress in Florida’s 2nd District to protect our freedom and make life more affordable. Nic believes our political system has failed us, and that North Florida deserves a new generation of leadership that will fight for practical, common-sense ideas to put our economy back on track and protect the place we all call home.
Nic’s focus is on creating and protecting good-paying jobs, lowering our grocery bills, and reining in skyrocketing health care & child care costs. He will work with anyone to solve problems and make our lives better.
With family roots stretching from Tallahassee to Panama City, Nic is proud to call North Florida home with his wife, Ashley, and two young children. Nic’s call to public service is rooted in his background as an Eagle Scout, Rickards High IB graduate, and entrepreneur who built businesses in the technology sector for over 20 years. He wants every North Floridian to inherit a future built on fairness, opportunity, and accountability.
About the Moderator
James Call is the Tallahassee Democrat Capitol Reporter and has produced award-winning reports on the politics, people, and wildlife of Florida for more than 30 years.
Call has detailed Gov. Ron DeSantis redistricting of Democrats out of a Florida congressional seat, employment issues for tens of thousands of state workers, Second Amendment and gun laws, clean water initiatives with a focus on the Everglades, Apalachicola River, and Wakulla Springs, and the status of endangered species such as the scrub jay and black bear.
He has won some of the profession’s most prestigious awards with organizations such as the Society of Professional Journalism, the Council for the Advancement of Education Southeast, and the AP and UPI wire services judging his work as excellent and worthy of state, regional, and national awards – including six broadcast wire service sports awards.
Prior to joining the Democrat in 2015, he served as the managing editor of the Florida Current, the capitol bureau chief for the Florida Public Radio Network and as executive producer for WTXL-TV Tallahassee.
Call attended Youngstown State University and The Ohio State University, where he earned a master’s degree in journalism as a Kiplinger Fellow.
We ask members to PLEASE RSVP as soon as you can and NO LATER THAN Thursday, August 6th which allows us to plan for seating and service at the event.
Guest fee for this program is $35. Please RSVP at your earliest convenience so we may provide an accurate headcount for food and beverage.
We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday, August 11th!
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