Today, on Tuesday, Nov. 8, each state will hold their midterm elections for the Senate, House, governor and other local positions.
One state in particular that everyone is watching is Florida. Florida is up for Senate and a governor election, two of the most powerful positions in politics.
The two candidates up for senate include Val Demings (D) and the incumbent Senator Marco Rubio (R). The importance of this Senate race lies within Rubio’s policies regarding LGBTQ+ and abortion rights. In fact, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) rated Rubio’s policy as a 0 out of 100 on the HRC scorecard.
Rubio’s ultra conservation, Christian policies regarding LGBTQ youth in schools led to the Don’t Say Gay bill, which bans instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade classes and requires teachers to “out” queer children to their parents.
Senator Rubio has also stated that the Respect for Marriage Act is a “stupid waste of time,” implying that he’d vote against the legislation, which would protect marriage equality for millions of LGBTQ+ couples. Regarding abortion policies, he has organized the Providing for Life Act, which would ban abortion on all counts even for cases of incest and rape.
The Florida gubernatorial election is between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Charlie Crist. Again, incumbent governor DeSantis’s policies also align with Senator Rubio regarding LQBTQ policies and abortion access. DeSantis also signed House Bill 7 (HB 7) to restrict how history and race are taught in schools. This is a dangerous bill that has already led to Florida public schools teaching state-sponsored propaganda that forces educators to erase key nuances and context. This prevents Black students and educators from sharing their lived experiences in the state.
The fate of youth in Florida is critical in this election, as the banning of teaching and supporting LGBTQ and Black histories will have great effects on students’ and educators’ mental and physical well-being. This is especially concerning as Florida has over 200,000 self reported LGBTQ+ youths in schools, who now cannot turn to schools as a safe space. Hence, electing politicians such as DeSantis and Rubio does not only misrepresent Florida as a state with a large LGBTQ+ and minority population, but will cause a great negative increase in youths’ mental health.
With this in mind, the importance of voting today, November 8th, is vital.