‘Barriers can be shattered’: Orange Dems praise Harris, vow to compete in Fla.

Orange County Democrats said Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic bid for president would reinvigorate voters in Central Florida and across the state.

“Florida is in play,” said Orange Democratic chair Samuel Vilchez Santiago at an event at a local union hall in Orlando, echoing the views of state Democratic leaders on Monday who quickly rallied behind Harris as their preferred presidential candidate after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek another term.

Many of the speakers were prominent Black women officeholders, such as state Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, D-Ocoee , who wanted to share “what this moment means to me” as a Black women runs for the nation’s highest office.

“It is a powerful validation of the capabilities of women of color in positions of leadership,” Bracy Davis said. “It demonstrates that barriers can be shattered, ceilings can be broken, and that our voices, experiences and perspectives are not only valued, but essential in shaping the future of our country,” she added. “The fact is that Kamala Harris is qualified and capable, but also brilliantly bold, profoundly prepared, supremely skilled, and most importantly, the best person for the job.”

Florida Dems close ranks behind VP Harris for presidential nomination

John Morgan, a prominent fundraiser for President Joe Biden has repeatedly said that Harris “can’t win” and that he would withhold money from the campaign.

But Bracy Davis said later she disagreed with that assessment. “I’m sorry, John Morgan, you’re a great guy. I love the work that you do. But I think you were dead wrong about this one,” she said.

“November will tell,” she added. “There’s going to be a lot of people that are upset, a lot of people that are shocked, but I believe victory is on the way.”

The country “has the opportunity now to step into its promise and tap into the power, the talent, the experience of Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States,” said State Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Ocoee.

“If her plumbing were different, there’d be no question that a lawyer, that a state attorney, that a prosecutor, that a U.S. senator can lead,” Thompson said.

Monique Worrell, the Orange-Osceola state attorney who was controversially removed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is running to return to the position the Republican governor yanked her from last year.

Harris’ presumptive nomination was “exciting because she’s a woman, and yes, it’s exciting because she’s Black, but as so many speakers have already acknowledged this morning, it’s exciting because she is more than well qualified, and if you heard her speak over the last 24 hours, you realize that she is ready to do this job. And because she is ready, we have to be ready,” Worrell said.

Nate Douglas, the 23-year-old Democratic candidate for state House District 37 in eastern Orange and Osceola counties, said he wanted to speak “directly to those of my generation, to those in Gen Z especially, and the many millennials that also live in my district. Go out there and vote,” he said.

“For the past couple of years, we have been saying that we want someone who is of the next generation, someone who is younger, more vibrant, to run for president,” Douglas said. “Right now, we have it.”

Polling data has showed young people, Black men and Hispanics moving toward former President Trump and Republicans.

But Douglas said Harris running would change that.

“I think right now, with a completely different choice, we’re going to see more voters … turning out this election cycle, because we really do have a transformational leader,” he said.

Trump defeated Biden in Florida by about 3.6 percentage points in 2020. Two years later, Florida reelected DeSantis by 19 points as Democratic turnout cratered.

But Santiago was adamant that the state was winnable for Democrats.

“If the national party and the national campaign didn’t believe in Florida and invest in Florida, they wouldn’t have hired a team of over 20 people to be here on the ground in Florida already, Santiago said. “We all understand what’s at stake here.”

When it comes to national party support, the “mistake we’ve made in the past is that we believe that other people are going to come save us,” Santiago added. “The party is going to invest nationally, but we are counting on each other. We are counting on our loved ones. We’re counting on our community to turn our people out.”