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Tim Wilkins has had many job titles throughout his life. And all of them have helped mold him into a leading candidate to represent Florida’s 11th Congressional District.
However, Wilkins’ résumé doesn’t read like that of your standard-issue politician.
In fact, it doesn’t read like any CV you’ve ever seen.
Marine veteran. Entertainer. TV and radio host. Investments and compliance. Consumer debt specialist. Small-business owner. High school weightlifting coach. Podcaster. And most important, husband, Dad and grandfather.
With a life that is deeply connected to West Orange County and a career that has touched nearly every sector of life that Central Florida has to offer, he is completely suited to succeed Daniel Webster as Florida’s 11th Congressional District representative. Though it has come to him as nothing more than an instinct, Wilkins’ entire career has been about serving.
As an entertainer, he has shared the stage with Aretha Franklin; Earth, Wind & Fire; and Lionel Richie. But he says those opportunities paled in comparison to entertaining our troops in Afghanistan and stateside. For more than 30 years, he also performed to support prominent Republicans, including Katherine Harris, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign.
Wilkins has built and grown several small businesses, including a faith-based film company that produced “And God Made Man,” a film starring Dean Cain and Kevin Sorbo that defended female athletes at the height of the transgender controversy. He and his wife, Amber, also own and operate a private school and an animation studio.
For the past five years, Wilkins volunteered to serve as a girls' weightlifting coach at Foundation Academy in Winter Garden, where he combined his love of bodybuilding with his Christian faith to teach and inspire the next generation.
With his daughter, whom he adopted almost 10 years ago, heading to college, now would have been the perfect time for the couple to coast into retirement. Or at least a well-deserved beach vacation.
Instead, Wilkins is running for office.
“When I (see) rising costs and our tax money just being wasted by the hundreds of billions, I said to my wife, ‘If the opportunity arises to serve (in Congress), I have to do it.’” Wilkins says. “I'm going to go up there and actually solve problems. ... (Right now) nothing gets done. Nothing.
“My wife is the most supportive human being alive,” he says. “When I came to her, like, five months ago and said, ‘Remember when my Mom had to sign me into the Marines at 17? I need to serve one more time.’
“I expected her to say, ‘No, we’re going to the beach,’” Wilkins says. “But she said, ‘I'm all in!’”
THE FEW. THE PROUD.
Wilkins comes from a long line of hardworking Americans — including truck drivers, lumberjacks, engineers and especially veterans. As a child, he spent summers with his aunt and uncle at Ford Ord, a former U.S. Army post on Monterey Bay.
“I was so moved watching the people march by (and) in the tanks and the planes and thought, ‘I want to do that someday,’” he remembers. “Everyone on both sides of my family served — grandfathers down
to aunts, uncles, cousins, even my own daughter.”
And for his whole life, if Wilkins was going to do something, it would be to the fullest.
"I've always done the hardest thing I can do," Wilkins says with a laugh. "I wanted discipline, so I joined the Marines. Fear of public speaking: I got on stage in front of 100,000 people. Whatever the challenge was, I leaned into it instead of running from it.
“Never been a politician before? I’m going to run for Congress,” Wilkins says. “People ask why, and I tell them, ‘Because my health insurance isn't good enough to get my head checked.’”
Wilkins says the Marines helped him hone his innate drive and his deep connection to those who serve. Over the years, he has worked with numerous service-related charities, been active in the veteran support community and most recently focused on assisting with the transition from active service to civilian life.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
Wilkins moved from California to the Sunshine State 30 years ago and then to Windermere 12 years ago to marry Amber.
And together, some of their greatest work came through life’s greatest heartbreaks.
After Amber’s son, Noah, lost his courageous battle with pediatric brain cancer, she chose to turn unimaginable loss into a mission of hope. Together, they grew Noah’s Light Foundation, supporting families facing childhood cancer while helping advance pediatric brain cancer research. That work resulted in a groundbreaking clinical trial that has gone on to help children around the world.
“Watching Amber fight for those families changed me,” Wilkins says. “ You realize that everyone is carrying something, and if you have the ability to help, you do.” For Wilkins, his greatest accomplishments have little to do with business success. Instead, it’s about family.
Nearly 10 years ago, he adopted Amber’s daughter, something he considers one of the greatest blessings of his life.
“It was simple,” he says of the decision. “She was already my daughter. The paperwork just caught up with what was already in my heart.”
COACH TIM
Wilkins is a morning guy — up at 6 a.m., makes lunch for his daughter and meal prep for the family before it’s off to the gym. For him, the gym is a place for focus and reflection.
“There's something powerful (about) connecting your body to your mind and your mind to your body,” he says. “Daily discipline has always brought me closer to God.”
About 10 years ago, Wilkins began competing in the bodybuilding world and marched up the ranks to No. 2 in the country in his age category.
When COVID-19 shut gyms down, Wilkins took to Facebook Marketplace, bought some equipment and built a mini gym on his lanai. Soon, that became a safe haven for area youth to come, work out and share.
“My wife calls them my bonus kids,” he says. “Bonus kid No. 1 was depressed that his school was closed, and the gym was his sanctuary — like it is for me. He explained, ‘I’m trying to get into West Point.’ So I got him some letters of recommendation, a suit — he didn't own one — and lined up a congressional interview. He got waitlisted, but then we helped him get a full-ride scholarship to Miami.”
Another bonus kid came to Wilkins after he had lost his father, and the mother was struggling. As they bonded over workouts, Wilkins found out the teen was working to pay for his own high school tuition. Then, as graduation neared, Wilkins realized he didn’t have any money for college. So Tim and his wife launched the faith-based David Scholarship, and this young man was the first recipient.
He recently graduated from Florida State University with a 3.91 GPA and is on his way to medical school.
“That’s my boy right there,” Wilkins says, smiling.
In addition to caring for his own family and his bonus kids, in 2022 Wilkins began helping coach the girls weightlifting team at Foundation Academy. During his five years, he and head Coach Christie Thompson grew the team from 16 to more than 60, with many lifters making it to the state finals. And while Wilkins helped the girls achieve personal records and snag some hardware, they, in turn, helped fuel Wilkins’ own faith.
“One of my favorite phrases is ‘We push weights as hard as we push faith,’” he says. “But working with
those girls grew my faith (too). There were a lot of times on buses that they all just sat crisscross applesauce and just witnessed and professed. ... I have faith in the next generation because of these kids right here.
“Jewelry isn’t allowed in competitions, so one by one, they would hand me their gold cross necklaces,” Wilkins says. “Early on, with a pocketful, it hit me: ’This is why I do this.’”
When Wilkins told the team he was running for Congress, they said they were very excited.
“The girls were so sweet,” Wilkins says. “They said, ‘Coach: We want this for you because it’s your dream, and we think you'd be great at it. We kind of don't want you to win though, because we want you back.’”
THE LEGACY YEARS
As much as Wilkins will miss the girls, the current state of our society and political landscape compels his candidacy.
“I’m really troubled by how polarized everything is,” he says. “We've lost that time when people just wanted what was best for America. And I don't know that it's been lost. I just think that hard-working Americans feel that the system isn’t on their side. And all we seem to hear are the grievances from the extremes. Worse yet: Social media has created ways to amplify our separation.
Wilkins hopes to bring a sense of connection back to the district — his home — and be a conduit for his neighbors. Of note, Wilkins is the only candidate who lives in District 11.
“I'm looking to do the greatest constituent services humanly possible, because that's the legacy,” he says. “You can go up to D.C. and submit 30 bills, and they die in committee. Or they make it through committee, and they get voted down. But you can set up constituent services in your area, and that could be your legacy — that you took care of your district.”
And throughout his entire life’s work, Wilkins’ focus has remained on the good he leaves behind.
As an entertainer, he’s given the best medicine to those who need it the most. At Foundation, he inspired hundreds of students as they grew into adulthood. And through his podcast, Fit to Serve, he honors military veterans as he shares their stories of service, fitness and perseverance.
Being able to do the same in the U.S. House would be the pinnacle of a lifetime of giving.
“My wife and I have talked about this since the day we met,” Wilkins says. “We call this portion of our lives The Legacy Years. What are we doing right now to leave behind? She always says, ‘We want to finish our lives empty, with nothing in our pockets. Time, talent and treasure, when we go to heaven, we have given everything we can.’
“So when I talk about providing the best constituent services, I think about listening and staying in constant contact with our District through town halls and videos,” he says. “And when I think of the senior, veteran or young homeowner who calls my office and says, ‘I'm having a problem with the federal government, the next question isn’t going to be, ‘What party are you in, and how did you vote?’ It's going to be, ‘How can I help?’ Should I earn the votes of District 11, service is and always will be my greatest calling.”
Paid for by Tim Wilkins for Congress.