She took on Moms for Liberty. Now she’s aiming for the Senate

Florida Democrats got a new candidate for Senate on Wednesday with the entry of Jennifer Jenkins a former Brevard County school board member best known for her work pushing back against Moms for Liberty a conservative activist group Jenkins is running in the special balloting scheduled for this November hoping to replace Sen Ashley Moody R-Fla who was appointed by Gov Ron DeSantis to replace former Sen Marco Rubio R-Fla after President Donald Trump tapped the latter to serve as secretary of state As it stands Jenkins is entering a relatively open field Josh Weil a Jacksonville Democrat who had previously run for a House seat against Rep Randy Fine R-Fla had staked out a position in the race earlier this year but withdrew in late July citing robustness issues Related How can you be so ignorant RFK Jr called charlatan during bipartisan Senate grilling Aside from amenity on Brevard County s school board Jenkins has managed a PAC called Educated We Stand over the past year The PAC which aims to counter the influence of conservative activists on general schools has had crucial success in the roughly year-and-a-half it s been developing In the school board races the PAC was involved in of its endorsees won The PAC was also advancing in blocking a proposed state amendment last year to make school board elections partisan Now Jenkins is hoping to flip Florida s Senate seat by running an affordability-focused campaign In an interview with Salon Jenkins noted that the first step for Florida Democrats who have watched the state become more and more comfortably Republican in fresh elections is to be honest about several of the deficits that we ve had I think Democrats have been talking to people instead of listening to them for way too long We ve walked away from entire communities because we feel like it s too hard to win them back So we stopped showing up in places where people are hurting and we don t connect with them anymore Jenkins stated Jenkins cited her success in Brevard County where she won in by points Trump won the county by points that year as proof of concept for her brand of politics That brand Jenkins revealed combines an current opposition to Republican social and economic policies with a dash of the economic populism that has appealed to progressives and independents in latest elections I am not a sit back watch it burn and laugh at them after it happens kind of person because while you re doing that you re impacting so multiple people s lives negatively I m a mom and I am someone who spent years pushing back against political extremism I am no stranger to that and I expect our politicians and our representatives in Washington to do the exact same thing Jenkins stated We need to protect programs that truly help people and we need to relentlessly relentlessly call out corruption and talk about how we have big donors and special interests that are getting tax cuts while we have working families that are seeing programs that they rely on being slashed We need your help to stay independent Subscribe in current times to sponsorship Salon s progressive journalism On other issues Jenkins talks in techniques more in line with the mainstream of the party On the United States relationship with Israel for example Jenkins commented that she had not extensively reviewed Sen Bernie Sanders s I-Vt resolutions to stop sales of weapons to the country but mentioned that she supposedly would not have voted for it In July Sanders forced a vote on two resolutions aimed at blocking the sale of arms to Israel one focused on bombs and the other on rifles In both cases the majority of the Democratic Senate conference voted in favor of the resolutions I believe that our arms sales should be in accordance with humanitarian and international law I believe though that we also need to recognize that Israel lives in a really dangerous neighborhood Jenkins disclosed On wellness care Jenkins explained she supports expanding the Affordable Care Act Medicare and Medicaid but stopped short of expressing encouragement for a single-payer wellness care system or a general option I grew up with a mom who was disabled my entire life I ve watched her fight the system and struggle for access to the medication that she needed access to procedures that she needed and struggled to go through loopholes Jenkins commented Start your day with essential news from Salon Sign up for our free morning newsletter Crash Discipline Jenkins also laid various of the blame for Florida s rollback of all vaccine mandates at the feet of senators who voted to confirm Robert Kennedy Jr as healthcare secretary I think the dropping of vaccine mandates was one of the dumbest things I have heard in up-to-date times and that s a really tough thing to say It is irresponsible and it is dangerous You know is a political talking point that is just gambling with the lives of our children and the lives of our district Jenkins stated You know DeSantis and his administration are bragging about being the Free State of Florida but I say that there s nothing free about burying a child for a very preventable disorder In the campaign ahead Jenkins indicated that she planned to leverage Moody s advocacy for the state s unpopular decision to drop school vaccine mandates as a wedge issue One poll from the Harvard T H Chan School of Society Physical condition identified that of Americans promotion routine childhood vaccine requirements Jenkins noted that because of GOP policies multiple will not have the choice to be able to vaccinate their children because it may not be accessible in their local pharmacies and it may not be accessible to them because of cost Ashley Moody she added has planted her flag in the sand that she agrees with this decision Read more about U S politics Did you do any analysis Tapper tears into Ladapo over Florida s vaccine free-for-all Kennedy family urge RFK Jr to quit after Senate vaccine hearing Majority of Senate Democrats vote to limit arms sales to Israel The post She took on Moms for Liberty Now she s aiming for the Senate appeared first on Salon com