Anna Eskamani Wants Florida Democrats to Move to the Left

[RandySF]

Anna Eskamani just won reelection to the Florida House but the Orlando Democrat is already thinking ahead to the next election–and what her party can do differently after a series of stinging defeats in the Sunshine State.

Eskamani’s answer is to target leadership in the Florida Democratic Party and replace it.

“Your voice matters. For far too long decisions about the Democratic party have been made behind closed doors, made among only the consulting class and other political elites,” she said.

Eskamani is a firebrand liberal and there is already a movement to draft her for the governor’s race in 2022. While Eskamani is not ready to discuss that just yet, she is ready to move her party to the left as a response to what went wrong. Her first targets include corporations and her own party.

“It’s a fact that, even within the Democratic Party, there are folks that are very comfortable with the influence of corporations. There are folks that are very comfortable with the exploitation of workers. There are folks that take money from private prisons,” she noted.

Eskamani is even ready and willing to call out some of the state’s biggest employers and job creators by name.



https://www.floridadaily.com/anna-eskamani-wants-florida-democrats-to-move-to-the-left/

[Phoenix61]

1. The problem is the same one Georgia had until

Stacey Abrams, no infrastructure. The Democratic Women’s Club of Florida is the only active part in the Panhandle. They mean well but I swear they still believe in ladies luncheons.

[OrlandoDem2]

12. Ding ding ding ding. I am meeting with Anna soon.

I will be discussing this with her.

[Blue_true]

22. I really believe that John Morgan running for Governor on our ticket

will be the start of building that infrastructure. Florida has become, over the last 30 years, a massive retirement haven, that has been harmful to democrats given the type of people that retired here. Florida has become what Arizona once was with the massive retirement communities like Sun City, before Hispanics there finally got their electoral shit together. Our problem in Florida is that older Cubans and people that fled Marxist countries make up a massive segment of our Hispanic voter block, unfortunately, those people favor republicans pretty heavily - so, our turnaround must involve keeping educated young people in the state, all of them won’t be progressives, but enough of them will be to give us a good shot at permanently turning Florida blue.

[Blue_true]

2. She comes from a very liberal city in Florida.

If she tried running not more than 20 miles where she wins, she would get badly defeated.

The problem in Florida is an almost total like of high technology or biotech. The Florida universities have done an almost abysmal job of spinning off high tech or biotech companies, as a result, the vast majority of grads in related fields leave the state, so we end up with a lot of seniors and dumbed-down people that are afraid of any change that will make the state better.

[OrlandoDem2]

10. She flipped a red seat to win. But we've run moderates like Alex Sink and progressives like Gillum.

We need an infrastructure. The FL Democratic Party is weak, inept, unsophisticated and disorganized.

[Demsrule86]

13. Gillum was no moderate.

[OrlandoDem2]

14. I didn't say he was. My point was we've run moderates AND progressives

We lost either way.

[Demsrule86]

18. It has to do with the candidate...Gillum wasn't a good choice honestly. I think

Gwen Graham would have had a better chance. I get what you say...we have a weak Democratic Party here in Ohio and there are Democrats here. We could do better and we must.

[Blue_true]

20. If we had nominated Gwen Graham instead of Gillum, we would likely

have a Democratic Governor and likely still have Bill Nelson in the Senate. I just believe that Gillum was too far left for what works in Florida at this juncture. Our best hope for 2022 is likely John Morgan, I would really like to see him select a youngish female running mate, I believe that he would if he ran. We have a lot of capable female legislators, but I am not sure that any have the statewide name recognition that will be needed in 2022, Morgan does.

[Blue_true]

17. We need an organized mind to mold us into a formidable party.

Once Reuben Askew won, Florida would go 24 years before a Republican was elected governor. Unfortunately, we have not won since Childs left office.

I am hearing rumors that John Morgan (drove the successful $15 minimum wage initiative and medical Pot initiatives) may run for Governor in 2022. I believe that he can beat DeSantis fairly handily. We need someone like Morgan to take the reigns of the party. He is more of a moderate, but has enormous statewide name recognition and unfortunately, he is a male, something that Sink was not and I believe that hurt her against Scott.

[Blue_true]

21. Flipping a red seat in an increasingly blue part of the state is not as profound

as flipping one in my region of the state. Republicans surrounding Orlando are simply running out of space, that region has managed to attract a large number of young people and is increasingly becoming more liberal as it undergoes massive growth.

[mcar]

3. I like her but she is wrong

Florida is, at best, center right. I live in a solid red county and am seeing some glimmers of sanity in LTEs in our local paper. A full on progressive move would kill that here.

[OrlandoDem2]

11. We ran Charlie Crist and Alex Sink for gov. They lost. We ran Gillum. He lost.

The FL Democratic Party needs an infrastructure. It is horribly inept. No passion. Very little ground game.

[Demsrule86]

15. Far left loses in Florida in all but the most liberal districts and won't win statewide either.

find a great candidate that is in the middle and run them in conservative to purple districts and statewide.

[Blue_true]

19. Charlie Crist was a two term republican Governor of Florida and before that,

a Republican Congressman. He became a democrat after his unsuccessful run for the USSenate as a republican (lost the nomination to Rubio in the tea party crazed 2010 election). Crist became a Democrat after floundering around for a couple years trying to stop the crazy push in his old party. He went on to win election as a Democratic Congressman.

Unfortunately, Sink’s problem was that she was a woman. I saw bumper stickers that almost openly bashed her sex. Unfortunately, we were not ready for a female governor then, but I believe that if we had nominated Gwen Graham, we would have a female governor now.

I was high on Nikki Fried at one time, but she has some weird dynamics going on in her personal life, though as an administrator she is solid. That personal life stuff will be used against her to our detriment, I am afraid. I believe our best hope is to have John Morgan run for Governor, with a younger female that has solid legislative experience as his running mate, I believe that is the only way that we get a democratic female governor now. I believe that if the female running mate is a highly capable young Cuban, that would be best, but a female like Lauren Book would also be a good choice, given her legislative record.

[msongs]

4. maybe they should just effing turn out and effing bother to vote nt

[JI7]

5. Like Andrew Gillum ?

[Progressive dog]

6. IMO That is playing right into the GOP's hands

It makes no sense, especially in a state the fascist won.

[tirebiter]

7. Make the Senate Democrat first

Timing is essential don’t give a target to the Georgia Republicans. It’s not like they’re far away from each other.

[orwell]

8. How about giving up all these labels...

...and actually talk to people and find out their concerns.

Here's a radical idea... govern for the greatest good to the greatest number.

Maybe good governance and addressing real world problems instead of ideology is a workable solution.

Call me a dreamer...

[Demsrule86]

16. I do think we need to run on local issues. All politics are local.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Sounds like she understands the major pitfall in Florida for Democratic leaders.

They can't help getting influenced by Chamber of Commerce types. Life here is pretty primitive that way.

[OrlandoDem2]

23. There really anything radical she says here. Anna supports small business entrepreneurs.

However, she’s pointing out that corporate interests have taken over.

She needs to build relationships with mom and pop shops. All Democrats do. She’s against our corporate masters ruling everything.

[betsuni]

24. Corporations "spend money to maintain the status quo so people stay poor and don't vote."

Is she saying Democrats "comfortable with the influence of corporations" have the same policies as Republicans? Are there any examples of this?

If corporations all want only to keep people poor and not vote, why would they bother with Democrats, why not just donate to Republicans already in power -- it's a sure thing to keep people poor and prevent them from voting.