Meet 8 women who could sway the election
As women go to the polls on the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment giving them the right to vote, their political might could be on display come Election Night.
And candidates knowit.
At a campaign stop in Ocala last week, President Donald Trump touted women’s support.
“Do they like Donald Trump? Yeah, they like Donald Trump,” he said. “You know why? Because they want safety and security. And they don’t want low-income housing built next to their beautiful suburban dream.”
But nearly every national poll shows women favor Vice President Joe Biden by a double-digit margin over Trump.
In Florida, likely the most critical swing state determining who will control the White House, women outnumber men statewide and in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties.
Apoll of Florida women by the University of North Florida this month found women going for Biden, with 56% statewide saying they planned to back the former vice president, with 39% breaking for Trump.
As campaigns hit their apex and early voting is already under way, the Orlando Sentinel spoke with eight women representing a range of political beliefs, socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicities from across the I-4 Corridor, providing a snapshot of the key region’s viewpoints.
Briana Ross
For Briana Ross, 18 and voting in a general election for the first time this fall, the choice is clear.
“I am voting for Joe Biden,” she said.
Ross, who attends the University of Central Florida and lives in Kissimmee, said she’s paid more attention to current events and politics during the past couple of years.
“As a voter, being a minority, a woman and an African American, there’s a lot of different factors that come into how I vote,” she said. “I want to pick somebody who will put everybody first, but will not overlook minorities – that is the thing that President Trump does.”
She was disappointed by Trump’s response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed.
“It seemed like he had no remorse for what happened to George Floyd, and that’s something that really impacted my point of view,” Ross said.
People of color, she said, pay taxes and deserve “equal and fair treatment” under the law.
She also worries about the lasting effects of the coronavirus pandemic and said Trump is unfairly blaming China for the spread of the disease in the United States.
“I believe our country should have closed sooner,” Ross said. “We should have taken more precautions earlier. We should’ve started social distancing earlier, wearing masks.”
Trump, she said, acts like “wearing masks is not such a big deal, when it is.”
“It protects us and the people around us,” she added.
While Ross said she appreciates Kamala Harris’ historic nomination as the first woman of color running on a major party ticket, she said she’s concerned about Harris’ track record as a prosecutor. The vice presidential candidate had a reputation for taking a “tough on crime” approach that led to lengthy sentences and swelled prison populations.
Bonnie Jackson
For some voters, even those who support Trump, the president’s often-abrasive rhetoric is a turnoff. For Bonnie Jackson, it’s part of the appeal.
“I really like the fact he says what he’s thinking,” said Jackson, a 57-year-old attorney who lives and works in Winter Park. “I knowthat drives other people bananas.”
But Jackson, a lifelong Republican, said she was bothered by the Access Hollywood tape where Trump talked about sexually assaulting women. The clip became public weeks before the 2016 election.
“I don’t think it’s OK. I don’t think it’s excusable,” said Jackson, a former model and Miss Wisconsin who said she faced sexual harassment when she was in her 20s. “I think it’s more normal than we would like to believe.”
Nonetheless, she voted for Trump.
She intends to do so again, she said, because he has kept campaign promises he made four years ago, such as exiting the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. She said she blames China, not Trump, for the spread of the coronavirus across the country and the more than 210,000 Americans who have died.
Though Jackson said she tries hard not to spurn friends and family members who disagree with her political views, they have affected some of her relationships.
“I have a sister who doesn’t speak to me because I’m a Trump supporter,” she said. “My aunt in California, we cannot talk about politics.”
Her mother, a Republican turned-who lives in
Maitland, already has a ballot for Biden.
“We’ve been talking about it for the last 24 hours,” Jackson said earlier this month. “At least we can talk about it.”
Alexandra Ale
For Alexandra Ale, a medicare sales agent living in Kissimmee, the choice is easy, even if she doesn’t love it.
“Vote him out, that’s my No. 1 priority,” she said of Trump. “I’m having to vote for a candidate that I wouldn’t normally vote for, to defeat President Trump.”
Ale, 38 and a registered Democrat, said shewould have preferred to vote for Bernie Sanders had hewon the Democratic nomination and would like to do away with the twoparty system altogether.
As a single parent of two daughters, she said she’s struggled to follow politics amidst the pandemic, as she juggles employment to cover rent and health-care costs.
“Even with getting paid a good salary, it’s difficult for me with one income,” she said. “Especially as a single mom, it makes single mothers more vulnerable.”
She said she wants to hear candidates discuss how they’ll help increase wages and make the cost of living more affordable.
Donna Simpson
Donna Simpson, 70, says that although she voted for Trump in 2016, she can’t do so this year. However, the lifelong Republican also doesn’t support Joe Biden.
“For the last four years, all I’ve seen out of Washington, D.C., is turmoil,” said Simpson, wholives in Poinciana. “The way I feel about it right now, I think I’m going to write my own name in.”
She said she gets the mail every day and rips up the relentless attack advertisements from politicians ranging from president down to the Florida House, and throws them in a trash can outside so she doesn’t even have to bring them in her home.
In 2016, she thought Trump would shake up the D.C. political class, but she said she quickly soured on him for his tweeting and fighting with adversaries.
With Biden, she’s irked by news reports of his son’s business ties in Ukraine.
Simpson, a retired appraiser, said she’s worried Social Security could dry up, leaving her without an income, and locally is rooting for reforms to homeowner’s associations in Florida.
“Social Security is my lifeline, and it’s not very much. But yet I pay my property taxes and my HOA fees,” she said. “I paid into
that soI could get thatwhen I retired, and they’re playing Russian Roulette withmy Social Security lifeline.”
Maria Ellis
Pocketbook issues and worries about unrest are top of mind this year for Maria Ellis, a 57-year-old voter registered without party affiliation.
“I can’t wait to vote,” she said. “I just really want to support our president.”
Ellis, who lives in College Park, said her stock portfolio looks better than it did before the pandemic started. Her brothers, who both work in construction, are doing well and neither has had to lay off workers this year.
She attributes her financial security, in part, to people’s confidence in Trump. At the same time, she worries about unrest in Chicago, where she owns a condo in the Gold Coast neighborhood. She blames Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democratic candidate she oncesupported, for allowing protests to turn violent.
“I can see the differences between the parties right nowand it’s sad,” she said.
Ellis, who was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. when she was 6, grew up in New York before moving to Central Florida with her family as a teenager. She’s spent most of her adult life in the Orlando area, though she lived for a few years in Chicago.
Though there was a shooting recently at the Mall at Millenia, where Ellisworks in retail, she said she generally feels at ease here.
“That was the beauty of America— you felt safe and secure in your country,” she said.
SarahHenry
SarahHenrymoved from Washington, D.C., to Altamonte Springs a year ago, taking her from the heart of American politics into a county that is home to one of the most critical battlegrounds in the nation.
Seminole County is traditionally a safe bet for Republicans, but in recent years, as more urban development has moved in, it has trended toward Democrats. This year it could go blue in a presidential election for the first time in at least 40 years.
Henry, who is voting for Biden, could helpmake that happen.
Biden wasn’t her first choice for the Democratic
nominee — she supported ElizabethWarren— but she has come around on the former vice president, in part because he’s adopted plans crafted bywomen likeWarren and Kamala Harris and given them credit for their influence and ideas.
“I’m definitely to the point where I don’t feel like I’m just voting against Trump,” she said. “I’m excited to vote for Biden and Harris.”
At her Seminole County condominium complex, Henry, a registered Democrat, said she suspects she’s among the younger and most progressive residents, but has enjoyed getting to know people who vote the sameway as her, but for different reasons.
Henry, 24, is focused on a candidate’s health-care priorities, as well as positions on climate change.
“For me, especially with the ongoing pandemic … their position on comprehensive health care including full reproductive health-care options is an especially important position for me,” she said.
Judy Sarullo
When Donald Trump held a rally earlier this month in Sanford, Judy Sarullo, a lifelong Republican, didn’t hesitate to join the crowd of largely maskless
supporters.
“I was screaming right at the front fence, like I was last time,” she said.
Sarullo, 72, acknowledged the dangers posed by Covid-19 but said she’s healthy and the virus has killed more people in other parts of the world. (More people have died from the virus in the U.S. than in any other country, though other countrieshave had a higher fatality ratewhenaccounting for population.)
Sarullo, a contributor to Trump’s re-election campaign, said life has improved since he took office four years ago. The stock market is doing well. Gas prices are low.
“He has goals for this country,” she said. “He respects our country, our laws. Hewants us to live.”
Protestors are “destroying” cities like Seattle and San Francisco, she said. When a reporter pointed out Trump was president whenthe protests occurred, Sarullo said, “no matter what the man does, he’s always getting crucified.”
Sarullo, who grew up in an Italian American family in New York, said her parents raised her to respect other people regardless of their race, telling her to stand for a Black woman who needed a seat on the bus and sending her to integrated schools.
“Color has nothing to do with anything— I’m tired of hearing that,” Sarullo said. “Be respectful, be educated, make yourway in life.”
She’s not completely in lockstep with the president. Sarullo said she supports abortion rights, a position that puts her at odds with Trump and her Catholic faith.
She knew since shewas a teenager she didn’t want to be a mother, though she is an enthusiastic aunt and spent years volunteering with childrenwhohad been abused.
After a career in sales for several large hotel chains, Sarullo now dedicates herself full time to running Pet Rescue by Judy, a nonprofit, no-kill shelter in Sanford.
She hasn’t studied many of the local races yet, but said it’s likely she’ll “vote Republican all the way down the ticket.”
Stella Lewis
Stella Lewiswas active in Republican politics until BarackObamaranfor president.
Then Lewis of Washington Shores, the mostly black west Orlando neighborhood, switched parties to support Obama.
In her neighborhood, she said support for Biden appears to be the dominant opinion.
“All I hear is we need to get a new president,” Lewis said.
And Lewis has taken matters into her own hands to help get him elected: She’s printed flyers on her own to bring to senior centers, tried to coordinate rides to help transport voters to the polls and said she’s trying to boost turnout in Parramore, hoping voters there will take advantage of the location at the Amway Center.
“Don’t let anything keep you from voting,” she said her message has been.
Lewis, 81, said jobs are a top priority, with a focus on equal pay for women. She also said education and infrastructure should be top priorities.
Biden’s message of unifying the country has been especially effective, she said.
“It’s so pronounced now because our leader is leading the charge for racism; as a result of that, we’re so divided,” she said. “Yes, [Biden] makessomegaffes every now and then … but he’s really spoken about bringing us together and unifying our country.”