Hello! I’m Lesa — pronounced Lisa. I’m a lifelong Democrat. There is nothing more demoralizing than showing up to vote and looking down ballot to see there is no Democrat on the ticket to vote for. As if we Democrats have simply conceded the race before it began. There are four Republicans vying in a primary to be seated in Florida’s 72nd District — and but for me, that would be all they needed to win the election. As many of you may know, Republicans have a supermajority in Florida’s House of Representatives and they are happy warriors to rubber stamp every cruel and culture-war agenda legislation DeSantis can dream up. They say the world is run by those who show up, so I am showing up.
I was raised in Buffalo, NY by two school teachers who wanted the best education for my sister and me, so they moved to the school district where they taught. I grew up in a two bedroom home and growing up, I saw my parents struggle. Ask any parent and we will all tell you the same thing - that we want to give our children a better life than we had.
In my life, I have had friends and colleagues of every race and religion and political stripe. I have been to democratic club meetings and dined with Republicans. I’ve got your back. Today the things that Trump and DeSantis use to try and divide us are the very traits that make up who we are as a country, a state, a county, a community.
They Say:
- Stripping Florida’s women of their rights wasn’t controversial?
- Shuttering offices of Diversity in our universities wasn’t controversial?
- Attempting to strip our towns of Home Rule isn't controversial?
It's easy to think that these things aren’t controversial …. when they don’t affect you.
Why you choose to run for office matters. Who you are, what you stand for, who you will fight for - matters.
The integrity of who represents us should match the integrity that we hold for ourselves.
I’ve been a proud Floridian for over 30 years. I graduated college and law school and met my wonderful husband, Trent, here and we raised our four amazing kids, Grace, Hope, Faith, and Chance. I don’t need to tell you -- Florida is at a crossroads. We, the people, have a choice. We need to decide who will represent us and while that is incredibly important that isn’t the only choice that this election is asking of us to make.
We need to make the choice of what we will accept from our elected leaders, where’s the line of how much can they get away with before we say ENOUGH!
We need to make the choice as to who is going to stand up for women’s rights, stand up for veterans, stand up for our students and teachers, stand up for our seniors.
We need to make the choice of accepting ineffective and allow them to keep calling it ‘progress’. We need to make the choice of are we going to keep everything the same … or are we going to change?
This is how we fight back. --
- This is how, we as women fight back - to elect leaders who will legislate on the premise of science and not stupidity.
- This is how seniors fight back to make sure they get the benefits they have paid into and earned instead of threats to cut them every turn
- This is how students and teachers are given the resources they need instead of teachers having to pay out of their own pocket for supplies and students are practicing drills rather than division.
- This is how we start to hold people to account and stop allowing them to enrich themselves all while people are working two jobs just to make ends meet.
So - how do we fight back? We make the choice to. We vote, we organize, we talk to each other, we might not agree on everything - but you will know that I am in this for the right reasons and the only reason that matters (and should matter) YOU. That's my choice.
www.VoteLesa.com — my ActBlue site