When people outside the state think of Florida politics, they often think of the de-facto MAGA headquarters that is Mar-a-Lago or the reactionary policies of Ron DeSantis – things like book bans, LGBTQ discrimination, climate change denial, and more. In other words? A lost cause for any sort of progressive movement. But in reality, Floridians have long been part of a powerful and unique fascism-fighting force that has united communities across difference to fight for labor rights, racial justice, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, and more, standing up powerful organizations and supporting champions from local government to Washington DC.
Following up on our recent Insights From Florida series–available now–Cayden talks to three Floridians who are part of this continuing fight and contributors to that series.
In this conversation they had the opportunity to go deeper on some of the work proposed in those articles and build towards what’s next for movement work in Florida and beyond.
On the panel is Florida State House representative and current US Senate candidate, Angie Nixon; non-profit and climate justice leader, Andrea Cristina Mercado; and veteran labor organizer Eric Brakken. They discuss how the progressive movement in Florida has been fighting back, and what they think can get the state, and other states that get written off in the national political calculus, out of the grips of MAGA.
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Episode Guests
Florida State Representative Angie Nixon is a sixth-generation Jacksonville resident, mother of five, small business owner, and former labor organizer.
Andrea Cristina Mercado is the President and CEO of the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund. The daughter of immigrants from Peru and Argentina, she brings over two decades of experience in civic engagement, strategic campaigns, and multiracial community organizing.
She served as the Executive Director of Florida Rising Together and the New Florida Majority Education Fund, where she spearheaded large-scale civic engagement programs that continue to grow political power that centers Black, Latino, and working class communities. She is a co-founder of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, where she was Director of Campaigns and Co-Chaired We Belong Together. A former Fulbright Scholar, Mercado learned community organizing and developed a lifelong commitment to Climate Justice while working with farmworker communities in Brazil. She lives with her family in South Florida, where she was recently named Best Activist by the Miami New Times.
Eric Brakken has been organizing for 25 years with labor, community and political organizations in Florida and across the country. He spent two decades with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), helping bring Justice for Janitors to the South before leading SEIU’s Florida political and community organizing program, and started his career organizing students through United Students Against Sweatshops to use the influence of universities to support workers organizing across the world. He has been committed to building a broader movement, and helped build a long-term strategic alignment of several statewide organizations called Florida for All and works with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition to expand voting rights to 1.4 million returning citizens.