Joseph Thornton, a 72-year-old psychiatrist, is running for Florida State Senate District 6 as an American Solidarity Party candidate in the Nov. 3 general election. He faces Republican Jennifer Bradley and Democrat Jason Bellamy-Fults.

Asked why he is seeking office, Thornton said in our candidate questionnaire: "I am running for the Florida Senate because my career as a physician has taught me that public policy is ultimately about human lives. For decades I have cared for people at their most vulnerable — veterans, the mentally ill, and those in crisis — and I have seen how laws, budgets, and systems either protect human dignity or erode it."

He added: "Artificial Intelligence is accelerating faster than our moral and civic capacity to govern it. … Ethical AI requires ethical communities, and leaders who can build trust rather than division."

Candidate information

Age: 72

Family: "Married 30 years, blended family, 5 adult children (of which one is deceased), one grandchild," Thornton said in our questionnaire.

Residence: Thornton has lived in the Gainesville/Alachua area for over 20 years, according to his campaign website.

Education: Thornton listed his education in our questionnaire as "B.A. University of Texas (UT) at Austin," "M.D. UT Medical School at San Antonio" and "Residency in Psychiatry, Stanford University Medical Center (includes one year as Chief Resident)."

Prior elected office: "None," Thornton said in our questionnaire.

Party affiliation: Thornton said in our questionnaire: "The ASP seeks the common good on common ground with common sense. The Values are: Life, Justice, Peace, and Planet."

Experience and public service

Thornton described his career in our questionnaire: "I am a physician who recently retired from the University of Florida College of Medicine, where I served as a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry. Over the past five years, I supervised psychiatry residents and taught global bioethics and artificial intelligence."

He continued: "Before joining UF in 2010, I served seven years as Clinical Director of a maximum‑security forensic mental health facility and three years as Medical Executive Director at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, which includes Florida's death row."

According to his eMedEvents speaker profile, Thornton also served as associate chief of staff for mental health at the North Florida South Georgia Veterans Health System and as chief of psychiatric services at UF Health Shands Hospital. He co-founded the University Clinical Psychopharmacology Laboratory and founded the Safe Family Project, a family violence prevention initiative.

He also founded the Alachua Area Medical Reserve Corps, according to his campaign website.

On the issues

Why the American Solidarity Party: Thornton said in our questionnaire: "I am a ProLife, human dignity, Catholic. Neither the Republican Party (calls me a communist) nor the Democratic Party (calls me oppressive) tolerates my pro-life dignity views." He added: "Urgently important is the management of AI. I took a self-funded sabbatical 6 years ago to study the ethics of AI."

Why he decided to run at 72: "The major prompt for me to run is the arbitrary increase in executions by Governor DeSantis since January 2025," Thornton said in our questionnaire. "I have worked on death row. I know that the death penalty does not deter crime. … As a witness and a pro-life Catholic physician, IF I DO NOT SPEAK UP, WHO WILL?"

Death penalty: Thornton announced on Sept. 10 what he called the Florida Abolition of Capital Punishment Act, proposed legislation that would end the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, according to his campaign press releases page.

Accomplishments: Asked what qualifies him for the job, Thornton said in our questionnaire: "In the early 2000s, I helped coordinate community interventions to confront domestic violence. After 9/11, I chaired the Bexar County Disaster Mental Health Consortium in San Antonio, preparing our region for bioterrorism threats. … In 2020, I provided direct hospital care for COVID patients."

Electoral reform: Thornton supports limits on corporate campaign money, term limits, open primaries and ranked choice voting, according to News4JAX.

The general election is Nov. 3.