Women help Democrats gather steam

Prescilla Vazquez has never been a voter.

But the 29-year-old owner of La Placita Latina bodega in Kissimmee was impressed with what she heard from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gwen Graham, who spent Wednesday working behind the counter on one of her campaign “workdays.”

“I haven’t voted,” Vazquez said. “But I’m voting for her.”

One year after the Women’s March displayed their growing political power, women Democrats in Central Florida are banding together as they attempt to ride a potential Democratic wave in November — one that could be largely fueled by women themselves.

State House District 47 candidate Anna Eskamani, who has been an organizer and emcee for Orlando’s women’s marches and Staff Writer

a director at Planned Parenthood, appeared as one of 48 first-time women candidates nationwide on a Time cover last month and was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy in her race to succeed GOP state Rep. Mike Miller — Murphy’s potential opponent in November.

"I believe that we deserve a Congress and an elected government that looks like we do and that reflects our diversity,” Murphy said in a statement. “That's why I am so encouraged that women across central Florida and the country are stepping up to represent their communities, including Anna Eskamani.”

Murphy said her win in 2016, against 12-term incumbent Republican John Mica, “can serve as an example to any woman considering a run for elected office, no matter how tall the odds."

Across Florida, other relative newcomers running for congressional seats include former State Department adviser Lauren Baer and Navy Judge Advocate Pam Keith in District 18 in the Port St. Lucie area, nonprofit worker Debbie MucarselPowell in District 26 in South Florida and former U.N. Ambassador Nancy Soderberg in congressional District 6, which includes Mount Dora.

“Women are at the forefront of being impacted by societal change,” Soderberg said. “We feel the cut in social services, or when premiums go up. … What happened in the last year is women knowing right from wrong and knowing what’s happening in the country is wrong, and it’s been a tipping point for women to step up and change it.”

Soderberg said Emily’s List, a group dedicated to electing Democratic women who favor abortion rights, heard from 1,000 women who wanted to run for office in 2016. In 2018, she said, they’ve heard from 30,000. “And that number is growing,” she said.

Eskamani, 27, pointed to research showing that, unlike men, women have to be asked an average of seven times by people close to them before they seriously consider running.

“I never thought I’d run for office,” she said. “[But] women’s lives in particular are impacted by political deal-making, and in many cases, we’re not at the table.”

Now, having raised more than $150,000 since filing in July, she said support she’s gotten from other women “is so palpable.”

“You’re talking to someone who lost their mother at 13 years old,” she said. “For me, I was absent from female mentorship in life growing up. … A lot of times change is incremental. But this is radical change, people understanding political advocacy and getting involved. There’s a definite wave.”

So far on the state level, the trend in Florida had been counter to elsewhere in the country with Democrats underperforming in special elections compared with Hillary Clinton’s numbers in 2016.

But the one victory for Democrats last year was Annette Taddeo’s win in September in Senate District 40 in South Florida. And 2018 kicked off with Margaret Good’s victory Tuesday in House District 72 in Sarasota, which President Donald Trump had won handily in 2016.

“[Just like] the story of special elections around the country, women were the story here in Sarasota,” Democratic political consultant Steve Schale wrote after Good’s win.

Turnout among Democratic women for the special election was 30 percent, he said, compared with 21 percent overall. Democratic women were also 26 percent of absentee voters despite being only 9 percent of registered voters in the district.

“If you look at not just [Sarasota], but looking at elections in Virginia, Alabama — the turnout among women, particularly Democratic women, has been thriving,” Schale said.

There are signs Democrats shouldn’t take a wave for granted, however.

Generic polling for which party voters would prefer control Congress has seen Democrats’ lead shrink over the last month, even as analysts such as Cook Political Report shifted more than 20 races — including Murphy’s — further toward the Democrats.

Many Republican women are running as newcomers across the state as well, including Assistant State Attorney Elle Rudisill in state House District 37 in Pasco County, Orlando attorney Mikaela Nix in state District 47 and former Senate policy adviser Vennia Francois in U.S. House District 7, Murphy’s district.

“All women will agree that we should be treated with respect, listened to, and taken just as seriously as our male counterparts,” Francois said. “When it comes to policy matters on solutions that affect our everyday lives and our families, every issue is a women’s issue. We don’t subscribe to cookie-cutter solutions or one party’s doctrine over the other.”

The Florida Republican Party, state chair Blaise Ingoglia and the Orange County Young Republicans did not return requests for comment.

Still, Graham and Soderberg said the enthusiasm among women is visible.

“I have felt it for a very long time,” Graham said at her Kissimmee event. “Everywhere I go, women are coming to events, wanting to meet me, feeling very passionate about how we have to elect women up and down the ballot.”

Soderberg said the country was at “a tipping point” for women.

“I don’t know where it’s headed, I don’t know how far it’s going to go,” she said. “But it’s very real.”