The University Center for Politics hosted U.S. Senator and former astronaut Bill Nelson (D-FL) Friday for a discussion about his political career and experience in space.
Larry Sabato, Politics Prof. and Center for Politics director said the Center invited Nelson — a University graduate — because of his experience in the public sector.
“I particularly like to bring our alumni here because our University students can relate to someone who once sat where they’re sitting now, so that’s the main reason,” Sabato said.
Nelson received his undergraduate degree from Yale and later received a degree from the University Law School. He began his political career in 1972, when he was elected to the Florida state legislature. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978, where he served six terms.
Nelson was later elected to the Florida Cabinet in 1994, where he served as State Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal. In 2000, Nelson was elected to the U.S. Senate, and he continues to hold the position today.
In addition to having a successful political career, Nelson has also worked for NASA. He spent six days orbiting the Earth aboard the shuttle Columbia in 1986, an experience which Nelson said has impacted how he approached his political career.
“When you look back at Earth from the perspective of the window of a spacecraft… you don’t see political divisions, you don’t see racial divisions, you don’t see ethnic divisions,” Nelson said. “What you see is that we’re all in this together, and that has always had a profound effect on my politics.”
Nelson said he has always has tried to be a consensus builder, and one of his goals has been to bring people together in the government. In his discussion at the University, Nelson said former president Ronald Reagan and former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill were role models for him because of what he said was their bipartisan leadership.
“[O’Neill and Reagan] fought like cats and dogs, but they could get together and get the job done,” Nelson said.
Nelson discussed what he saw were the differences between the politics of today and the politics of when he first came into office. Nelson said the government now is much more divided than it once was.
“Because of Mitch McConnell and John Boehner realizing that since they’re in control, they’ve got to get something done, I think there is a desire to work with the Democrats to show some progress,” Nelson said. “We’ve done that on a few things thus far, and that to me is encouraging.”
Among the students who attended the discussion was first-year College student Austin White, who said he came because of his interest in a career in public service. He said he felt that Nelson embodied his dreams.
“I thought it was really interesting how he got to address some of the more mundane things — how to simply conduct yourself in a very hot and heated environment such as Congress, how to look at people as people, [how to] and be friends despite disagreements,” White said.
Other students said they were really interested in his experience with NASA and support of the organization in Washington. Fourth-year College student Allison Irby said she enjoyed when Nelson spoke about NASA, since she’s always been interested in space.
Since having been a part of the U.S. space program, Nelson said he is passionate about its aims. However, he said there are other reasons why he has pushed Congress to continue funding the space program.
“It first of all pushes us to develop the new technologies that then have tremendous applications to our lives here on Earth,” Nelson said. “Second thing it does is it gets young people excited [about] math, science, technology and engineering, and that is our competitive edge for the future in a global marketplace.”
Sabato said he thought that the most important part of the senator’s talk was the space program, since it is likely a large part of humanity’s future and of the future success of students.
“We have to do everything we can to get people focused on pushing the program forward,” Sabato said. “The returns on investment are enormous… and the returns are really the future of mankind.”
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