Margaret Rowell Good says she’s very aware the previous generation of women in this country had fewer career options, and that they certainly didn’t feel a welcome call to run for office. After filing for state House in District 72, she says she doesn’t want citizens of Florida feeling so limited. “I wanted to make sure other people had options,” said Good.

The first Democrat to file in a surprise special election to fill the state House seat, Good enters the contest with the backing of state party leaders and some nonprofit experience under her belt. In particular, she’s stressing her work on environmental preservation, including work on a public-private partnership to establish the Florida Horse Park in Ocala, while calling for better water preservation programs in the state. Specifically, she’s been frustrated at a failure by the Legislature to follow the mandate of Amendment 1, which passed in 2014 with 74.96 percent of the vote and calls for a third of revenue from real estate documents stamps be used for land and water conservation.

An attorney at Matthews Eastmoore Trial Lawyers, Good previously worked for United Way and today served on the board of governors for The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division. While a Georgia native herself, she notes her father was a fourth-generation Floridian before his work as an Episcopal priest took him the Georgia and South Carolina. Good would move to Florida in 2004 and arrive in Sarasota in 2012.

As the region deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, she wished aloud that the region had a representative; state Rep. Alex Miller resigned in August to spend time with her family and on her business. “It’s unfortunate at a time like this when a natural disaster has struck that we are left without a representative in Tallahassee,” she says. Good says she has tried to help the community right now by engaging in conversations with FPL and assisting nonprofits to fill community needs.

Good has been active in the local Democratic party since moving to Sarasota and says she has always considered running for public office. She enters the race with a number of key endorsements, including from state House Democratic Leader-designate Kionne McGhee and former Sarasota County Democratic Party chair Christine Jennings.

Good is the third candidate to announce her the special election. Republican James Buchanan and Libertarian Alison Foxall have also filed for the seat. A primary, if necessary, is scheduled for Dec. 5. The election to decide a new representative is slated for Feb. 13.