Sprowls learned life lessons as an assistant state attorney: Judiciary chair to prioritize the collection of criminal justice data.

When Chris Sprowls was an 18-year-old high-school senior, he was diagnosed with the scary C-word.

He had Hodgkin's lymphoma. After surgery to remove tumors and eight months of chemotherapy, alongside very sick people who shared their thoughts about life, he survived--and gained the bonus of a new attitude.

"The experience is not something I would trade for anything," said Sprowls, a Republican state representative from Palm Harbor.

"It's really been an asset to view life as a precious thing and to try to live fully, realizing life is short."

Sprowls is wasting no time rising in the leadership ranks at the Florida Legislature.

At only 30 years old, he was elected to represent the 65th District in 2014, and subsequently re-elected, and his office is in Clearwater. He chairs the House Judiciary Committee, serves on the Appropriations Committee, the Select Committee on Hurricane Response and Preparedness, and the Rules & Policy Committee.

He is in line to become speaker of the House for the 2021 session.

House Speaker Richard Corcoran appointed Sprowls to serve on the Constitution Revision Commission that reviews and proposes changes to the Florida Constitution every 20 years, and the 37-member group began holding policy committee meetings this month.

But his first public service began right out of Stetson University College of Law, when he became an assistant state attorney in the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Pinellas and Pasco counties.

While still a law student, at a Hillsborough County Bar Foundation Law & Liberty Dinner, he had a chance to talk to Bob Woodward, The Washington Post's famous investigative reporter who won a 1973 Pulitzer, along with Carl Bernstein, for their stories about the Watergate scandal.

Sprowls told Woodward he was trying to decide whether to go into private practice or become a prosecutor.

"Bob Woodward said something that stuck with me. He said being a prosecutor is great training for life," Sprowls recalled.

"He was right. You have to make decisions as a very young professional that have a huge impact on people's lives. You have to make heavy decisions, as you try to figure out what to do to have justice done in a case. It's balancing the books. A wrong was done, and you have to try to right that wrong."

One high-profile case he prosecuted was a revived cold case ending in the 2013 conviction of William Hurst for the 1982 murder of his wife, Amy Rose Hurst, found dumped in the Gulf of Mexico.

He also served as...