This just keeps getting better and better! Trump’s missteps are sealing the deal in Florida for us. His insulting rhetoric about African and Latino Americans, his Twitter fight with Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe, the stunning revelation that he had violated the U.S. embargo by having surrogates spend money in Cuba to scout out possible hotel-casino opportunities if the embargo was lifted, pissing off most of the thriving, normally GOP leaning Cuban population, the list goes on and on. The result is that Clinton has opened up a lead in Florida, and D. J. Trumpenstuff is toast if he can’t carry his second home state.
Time to put the hammer down and seal the deal. But we have a unique opportunity to ramp up registration, GOTV and not only hand Hillary the state on a silver platter, but boost the down ballot candidates as well.
The current incumbent is Mario Diaz-Balart (R), who has been in the House since he was elected in 2002. He has represented multiple districts in Florida, possibly running to another district when the heat got too high in his current district? He’s not much of a Congressman. I just need one example to show where his heart is and how he thinks. He proudly sponsored the “Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2015”, which despite its lengthy and impressive title basically means nothing more than to require the Secretary of State to certify by letter to Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood was now considered a “foreign terrorist organization”. Talk about a critical issue, with deep ties to U.S. security issues. Folks, WE’RE actually paying for this shit!
Give me the august Dr. Alina Valdes. She is an immigrant. She was born in Cuba, and emigrated as a child to New York, where she was raised and educated. I won’t go into her CV in her physician training, you’d get dizzy from the long words and qualifications, and want to call tomorrow to schedule an appointment with her, even if nothing was wrong with you, just to meet her.
Early in her medical career her social conscience shone through like a lighthouse. To quote from her campaign page bio;
Her passion and dedication to the underserved Latino Community of the South Bronx landed her a position at Morris Heights Health Center, a community-based facility providing comprehensive health services, from 1991-1999. As part of her duties, Dr. Valdes held various academic titles, including Clinical Preceptor and Clinical Adjunct of the Bronx Lebanon Physician Assistant and Medical Residency Programs, as well as Clinical Preceptor of the Harlem Hospital Physician Assistant Program.
So, I think she cares, O.K.? Upon moving to Florida, she continued her incredible outreach work, working for the Miami Rescue Mission Clinics, treating the homeless and mostly uninsured patients of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. She is also politically active, having worked for the Obama re-election campaign in 2012, and Charlie Crist’s campaign in 2014. She’s got some schooling under her belt.
Her platform is exhaustive. She supports low cost college, renewable energy, getting big money out of politics, saving and strengthening Social Security, equal pay for women, universal gin background checks, immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship and healthcare for all. The hits go on and on.
I saved the cherry for the top of the sundae for last. Her opponent, Marco Diaz-Balart has publicly stated that he is voting for Donald Trump, but FL-25, where his seat is? It’s 70% Hispanic! With the Hispanic loathing of Trump, if we can’t flip this seat, what seat can we flip. This seat is fruit so ripe for picking that it’s starting to drool juice. Let’s go get it!
If you’d like to learn more about Dr. Valdes, you can go HERE. If you’d like to contribute, click your mouse button HERE. And if you want to spritz on some mosquito guard and get out into the fresh Florida sunshine with Dr. Valdes, or spread the good word on the phones for a while, you can click HERE. She is listed on the outstanding 90for90.org so you know she’s golden! Come on guys and girls, let’s get this done and get a nice case of the warm fuzzies!
Thanks as always for reading, each and every one of you are the wind beneath my wings!