Cary Pigman

History

Pigman was born in Mt. Vernon, Ohio and attended Xavier University in Cincinnati, where he graduated with a degree in chemistry in 1980. He then attended The Ohio State University College of Medicine, graduating with his medical degree in 1983. Afterwards, he interned at the Naval Hospital Oakland, and then served in the United States Navy from 1983 to 1989, where he worked as a battalion and regimental surgeon in the 2nd Marine Division. Pigman then completed his residency at the Georgetown University Medical Center, specializing in emergency medicine. In 1994, he moved to the state of Florida. He worked as the Medical Director of Hardee County Fire/Rescue and worked at the Samaritan Touch Care Center as a volunteer physician.

Florida House of Representatives

In 2012, following the reconfiguration of the Florida House of Representatives districts, Pigman ran in the newly created 55th District. He was opposed by former State Representative Randy Johnson in the Republican primary. On election night, it appeared that Pigman emerged victorious over Johnson by 26 votes, which prompted an automatic recount; a manual recount increased Pigman's margin of victory to 34 votes. In the general election, he faced off against Democratic nominee Crystal Drake. Despite their different partisan affiliations, both Drake and Pigman emphasized their similarities, with Pigman observing, "We both have connections with agriculture either direct or as a family, so we both bring sensitivity to issues of agriculture. She's a Democrat and I am a Republican and other than that I leave it up to the voter to distinguish between us"; Drake noted, "I'm a very conservative Democrat so we are pretty close on just about every issue except education." Ultimately, Pigman defeated Drake by a fairly solid margin, winning 56% of the vote. In 2014, Pigman was re-elected to his second term without opposition.