Orlando Sentinel

Biden names Orlando strategist his senior adviser in Florida

- By Steven Lemongello rygillespi­e@ orlandosen­tinel.com slemongell­o@ orlandosen­tinel.com

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday named Orlando strategist Jackie Lee as his Florida senior adviser for the 2020 presidenti­al campaign.

Lee, a founding partner of JLee Strategies in Orlando, had previously served on the Florida leadership team for former President Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012.

“From prominent state legislator­s to statewide figures to distinguis­hed community leaders, Vice President Joe Biden has earned the support of Floridians from across the state, and I am honored today to officially become a part of Team Joe,” Lee said in a statement.

“Sunshine Staters know that Joe will fight to protect their health care, ensure everybody can be a part of the middle class, and restore the soul of the nation. Florida is a crucial state in this primary — and one that Joe Biden can and will win.”

Lee also worked on campaigns for two successful ballot initiative­s, the Fair Districts amendment in 2010 that makes gerrymande­ring districts harder, and Amendment 4 in 2018, which restored voting rights to exfelons.

She got her start in politics in Florida in 2006, when she worked on former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s first reelection campaign.

Biden was one of the few 2020 presidenti­al candidates to come to Central Florida this year when he appeared at a fundraiser at attorney John Morgan’s home in Lake Mary in May. South Bend Mayor Pete

socialist,” referring to his opponent, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, a selfdescri­bed Democratic socialist.

“I’m not the one promising Medicare for All, which by the way costs $34 trillion over 10 years,” he said.

His plan, a Medicare option, “is $720 billion over ten years. We can afford that, without raising your taxes.”

In the end, Biden said, “everybody knows what Donald Trump is. Even the people like him know he has no character. Have you ever heard anybody vouch for his character?”

People who like Trump, he said, he said, “like him because of the issues. They like him because of the tax cut, they like him because he’s a racist – whatever the reason is, they like him.”

In the U.S. today, “There are still a lot of people out

hip pain.

“There are a lot of programs that you jump through a bunch of hoops, you get a plaque, and you’re done. This is the opposite of that,” Johnson said. “It’s admitting that this is something you want to work on…it’s the beginning of a process.”

The survey is available at Orlando.gov/agefriendl­y.

Buttigieg held a campaign rally in Orlando in August.

Biden held a 10-point lead over U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and a 20-point lead over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, in Florida, according to a Florida Atlantic University poll of Democrats in September, the most recent major survey. Other recent nationwide polls have him trailing Warren in the race for the nomination.

Florida’s presidenti­al primary is scheduled for March 17.

there who are afraid,” Biden said. “And they tend to be people who work workingcla­ss jobs. … We talk about them as if they must all be racist. But these same folks voted for a black guy and an Irishman.’

“So what happened?” he asked. “We didn’t pay attention to them during the last campaign.”

The Florida presidenti­al primary is scheduled for March 17.

 ?? SARAH BLAKE MORGAN/AP ?? Democratic presidenti­al candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during an interview in Florence, S.C.
SARAH BLAKE MORGAN/AP Democratic presidenti­al candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during an interview in Florence, S.C.

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