‘We Have to Actually Start Doing Something!’ Says Democratic Candidate Raquel Pacheco

With Florida facing inflation and a housing crisis, among other issues, the state Senate hopeful names the first three things she’ll do to help struggling Floridians if she wins her seat in November.

Local business owner and Army National Guard veteran Raquel Pacheco, the Democrat who is running for the Florida state Senate (District 36), spoke with Floricua about what 20 years of Republican rule has done to the Sunshine State, what needs to be done to give all Floridians the opportunity to thrive, and what she hopes to accomplish if she defeats her Republican opponent, Ileana Garcia, in November.

“Is it going to be an uphill battle? Yes, without a doubt,” Raquel told Floricua. “But this is not my first rodeo,” added the former Miami Beach Commission candidate.

As a Democrat running in a red-leaning state, what are the issues that concern you the most?

Ironically enough, the thing that we have going for us right now is the overturning of Roe v. Wade because women, in my opinion, are the ones who are going to control the outcome of these elections.

Is this true for your district, which is densely Republican?
In my district, when it comes to the issue of choice, they overwhelmingly support a woman’s right to choose. And I’m talking 68% in our most recent poll.

On what issues do you differ from your opponent, Ileana Garcia?
There couldn’t be a clearer contrast between me and my opponent. She’s 100% for a full ban on abortion, with zero exceptions. I’m endorsed by Planned Parenthood, and all the pro-choice organizations. My opponent also claims that she is not an environmentalist by any means, that being gay is temporary, and that racism is no longer an issue because we had a black president for two terms. So, there’s a lot of contrast here between her and I.

RELATED: DeSantis Doles Out Millions, But Fails to Say Funds Come from Biden’s American Rescue Plan

A lot of working Floridians are hurting with the current economy. What, in your opinion, is fueling the economic slump in the state?

We need to call it out as it is. There’s this gas tax break that [DeSantis] is putting into effect in October. He could have put it into effect [last] January, but you know, he’s putting into effect in October and that’s not a coincidence because that’s right before election and those are federal funds. That’s money that’s coming from the Biden administration. So, I’m not going to let them get away with acting as if this is their money that they’re gifting us. I’m calling it out every chance I get. Additionally, we have a major issue in the state when it comes to homeowners’ insurance, and that’s because we don’t have a diverse provider base.

Why is that, in your opinion?

We have several companies that can come here to offer us auto insurance, motorcycle, life insurance, but they refuse to do home insurance because the risk is too high because of the hurricanes and all the risks that we face. So, we’re left to deal with one company that essentially has a monopoly over it. And now we have seniors who are on fixed incomes, dealing with the prospect of possibly not being able to stay in their homes as they’re aging, because of their insurance rates.

What do you think is the solution?

I’d like to look for ways that we can help some of these seniors and low-income folks to subsidize some of these increases and take the pressure off of them, so they can stay in their homes. And really start looking at the bigger picture, which is the reason why these insurance companies consider us to be so at risk. We’re at the epicenter of global climate issues, right? I mean sea level rise and this increase in these horrible storms. And so, I think that as a state that is dealing with that so directly and obviously a state surrounded by waters and rising sea levels, we have to really get aggressive about how we deal with climate change and the impact that it has on our communities because, you know, it’s not going to get better in time.

You are a single mother with a child in school. Some say that public education has been degraded in Florida. What do you say to that?

The censorship of books, the attack on the LGBTQ community, the attack on teachers… It just goes on and on and we have to fight [it]. They are trying to indoctrinate our children and then accusing teachers of doing exactly what they’re trying to do. But there’s a big coalition now, and I’ll be part of that coalition, to fight that I believe that studying the real American history is critical to ensuring that future generations have a sensibility and an understanding of that history.

You know, these are the Republicans who are supposedly the party of freedom and small government, and they are literally in every aspect [of my life] from my womb to the books that my child reads in school; they are literally integrating themselves into trying to control every aspect of our lives.

As an Army National Guard veteran, what is your position on gun control?

I’m the only candidate I know who’s actually used and operated these types of weapons, the AR-15s and so on. I’ve seen first-hand the type of damage that they cause, and I can tell you that they don’t have a place in our in our streets and in our communities. Gun violence goes well beyond these horrible school, supermarket, and church shootings all over the country. It’s an issue in everyday life in certain communities, especially underserved communities, where guns have literally taken over their neighborhoods and people and their children are living in constant threat of violence and danger. I do support the Second amendment. I don’t want to take people’s guns away. I just want to make sure that we put in place some additional safeguards. We all want our children to come home alive from school. We all want to be able to go to the grocery store, attend the concert or whatever, without the threat of being shot down.

RELATED: DeSantis Pushes for Conservative School Board Candidates Who Align With his Political Agenda

If you are elected, what are some of the issues you’ll address immediately?

First thing is a woman’s right to choose. We currently have a 15-week ban on abortion. I got pregnant when I was 37 years old. A lot of the tests, because mine was considered a high-risk pregnancy because of my age, are not done until 19 weeks, 21 weeks and beyond. So that is a discriminatory law, and it puts women’s health and puts families in danger, because women can die from these issues. So, the first thing I want to do is put is reverse the 15-week ban, and make it go back to the original, which was 24 weeks, secondly. I want to deal with the housing crisis issue. And I think a big part of that is dealing with the insurance issue. So, I’d like to put a cap on insurance rate increases until we figure this situation out and we can diversify the market to take some of the pressure off. As for housing, another thing that I would like to do is see that any new development allocates 20% to workforce housing.

In your opinion, is Florida still a swing state?

When it comes to this election, we can pretty much count on people voting according to party lines because of the way that we’re so polarized. But I think that there’s a large percentage of [my opponent’s] base that is also looking for an alternative. And I come across as a moderate Democrat, which I consider myself to be, but very much for social justice and equality.