Chris was born in New York to Joseph & Marie Sprowls. Joseph, a former New York City Detective, and Marie, an office manager, decided to relocate the family to Tarpon Springs when Chris was just three-years-old and Chris has spent his entire life living in the Tampa Bay area.
Chris attended the University of South Florida in Tampa then continued on to Stetson University School of Law in the fall of 2006. Upon graduation Stetson College of Law, Chris received the school’s most prestigious honor, the Edward D. Foreman Most Distinguished Student Award.
Also during law school, Chris was elected the National Chairman of the Law Student Division of the American Bar Association – the largest professional student organization in the world. In that role, Chris was the chief spokesman for the nearly 60,000 law student members of the ABA.
Chris focused his chairmanship on making a difference in the lives of our nation’s veterans. Under his leadership, the Law Student Division of the ABA created Duty Bound, a program which ultimately resulted in significantly increasing the number of law-school based pro-bono legal clinics serving veterans nationwide. Out of Chris’s tireless commitment to veterans, Stetson’s Veterans Law Clinic was born.
After graduating from law school, Chris became an Assistant State Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, which serves Pasco and Pinellas counties. In his capacity as a prosecutor, Chris tried dozens of jury trials, many involving serious felonies such as murder, kidnapping, and child molestation. Among Chris’ most notable trials included the conviction of an individual who drove her car unto a front yard striking triplet little girls, as well as the conviction of William Hurst for the 1982 Murder of his wife Amy. As a prosecutor, Chris provided a voice for our community’s victims and worked tirelessly to provide them the justice they deserve.
Chris was elected to the Florida House on November 4, 2014. He immediately became a strong advocate for free-market economic polices that reward innovation and prevents government from picking winners and losers. In his first session in the Florida House, Chris passed legislation to assist craft breweries, legislation geared at reforming the Public Service Commission, and a bill to protect property owners from losing their homes at the hands of out of state corporations.
The bill to reform the Public Service Commission (PSC) ended up saving Duke Energy ratepayers over 600 million dollars. After reforming the PSC, Chris set his eye on assisting patients who were often hit with surprised medical bills after a hospital visit. As a result, Chris passed a healthcare transparency bill that protects patients from surprise bills from hospitals and insurance companies and ensures that the patient has the right to an upfront cost estimate.
In addition to Chris’s work for ratepayers and patients, Chris sought in his first two years to empower parents and provide children in our community with an additional pathway to prosperity. Chris passed a bill that allows parents to send their child to any public school they wish to, so long as there is room. Chris also brought a pilot program to Pinellas County that allows selected principals to have more autonomy in how they manage their schools, additional leadership training, and a higher salary.
Chris was re-elected to the Florida House in 2016 and selected to Chair the House Judiciary Committee. Since that time Chris passed a bill to ensure the constitutionality of the State’s death penalty statute, a bill to ensure that all Floridians have access to the ride-sharing economy and platforms such as UBER and Lyft, and a bill that will make Florida’s the nations leader in the collection and reporting of Criminal Justice Data.
Chris works everyday to keep his promises to you, because promises matter – and so do results.
Chris and his wife Shannon live in North Pinellas County with their two boys Prescott and Conrad.