JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA — Like a good salesman, Matt Carlucci is there… to sell you a State Farm insurance policy.
Last week, the Jacksonville City Councilman used his public platform to attack Slide Insurance – a burgeoning online insurance provider based in Tampa. He recommended Floridians who are using the state-backed, taxpayer-funded Citizens Property Insurance stick with their current policies instead of switching to Slide.
On Wednesday, Carlucci tweeted: “If you have a citizens homeowner insurance opportunity to move away from citizens to Slide insurance co, I advise against moving to Slideins co . Slide ins co. Does not share the same values I feel important. Stay with citizens and stay away from ‘Slide Ins. Co.’.”
The poorly worded tweet served as an attack on Carlucci’s market competition. It racked up thousands of views before Carlucci deleted it.
“I deleted the tweet because I probably should not have put it up,” Carlucci told The Florida Standard on Monday, citing his position as an elected official.
Carlucci acknowledged Slide is a competitor, but claims he rarely runs into situations where he and the company would be fighting for the same customers.
“[The tweet] had nothing to do with competition,” he said.
Carlucci declined to elaborate on what “values” Slide lacks but said he had a “very distasteful experience” with the company.
Founded in 2021, Slide Insurance offers a digital service model to help customers circumvent what the company considers antiquated industry practices.
“Independent agents are critical to the future of insurance, but they are limited, and often put out of business by the industry’s archaic technology and processes,” Slide Insurance Founder and CEO Bruce Lucas says on the website. “We're on a mission to change that.”
Carlucci, a Republican, has championed Left-wing causes in recent years. In 2020, he co-sponsored a bill that gives the City authority to punish local business owners who refuse to accommodate homosexual or gender-confused men and women. The legislation – dubbed by conservatives as the “bathroom bill” and considered an attack on religious liberty – passed the Republican-led council and was signed by former mayor Lenny Curry.
More recently, Carlucci has been an outspoken advocate for tearing down a century-old statue that honors women whose husbands, sons, fathers and brothers died fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War. He also endorsed Democrat Donna Deegan in her successful bid for mayor this spring.
