Tallahassee's two Congressmen have different takes on Donald Trump's State of the Union

The political divide separating the nation over impeachment — in a presidential election year — runs through the All Saints neighborhood, mere blocks from the state Capitol in Tallahassee. 

Up the hill and to the west is the campus of Florida A&M University – part of the 5th Congressional District, which runs from Quincy to Jacksonville through a tier of counties that hug the Georgia line.

To the south is College Town, an entertainment district adjacent to Doak Campbell Stadium and Florida State University.

It just happens to be in an otherwise mostly rural 2nd Congressional District, running from Bonifay 250 miles east to take in Bay County, the Gulf Coast and Big Bend before heading inland toward Marion County.

It’s represented by Congressman Neal Dunn, R-Panama City.

In Tallahassee, the two congressmen represent very different constituencies.

Dunn has the FSU campus and the affluent northeast suburbs; Lawson represents FAMU and some of the poorest zip codes in Florida.

As nature shaped the geography of the area where the two districts intersect – the rolling red hills of North Florida giving way to the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico – the events of the last three years shaped their view of President Trump’s State of the Union.

“That was not a speech to unite the country," the Democratic Lawson said. "This was a political speech for an election year."

But asked to describe the President's accomplishments and his vision for the future, the Republican Dunn called it “the great American comeback.” 

Voters in Panama City, Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Ocala, along with those in small farming and logging towns like Madison, Blountstown, and Jasper, picked the two to be their voices in the U.S. Capitol.

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