The Democrat David Richardson, who seeks to occupy the chair left by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the US Congress, today began a visit to Cuba to “connect better” with the Cubans of South Florida, announced his campaign in Miami .
Richardson, current representative to the House of Representatives of the Florida Congress for the small Havana neighborhood of Miami, will meet with island businessmen, cultural organizations and members of the LGBTQ community.
The state congressman, who speaks Spanish, seeks to represent District 27 of Florida in the federal Congress, currently in the hands of the Cuban-American Ros-Lehtinen, which was in 1989 the first Cuban-American and the first Latina elected in Congress and who announced his retirement last year.
The Democrat, supporter of the process of normalization with Cuba undertaken by former President Barack Obama (2009-2017), said he expects to know “first hand” the progress of this policy.
“Half a century of isolation did not achieve progress for ordinary Cubans, which is why I fully support a position of commitment with Cuban civil society,” he said.
According to Richardson, he goes to Cuba despite “President Donald Trump’s attempts to reverse the advances of his predecessor in foreign policy.”
Richardson, the first politician openly gay elected in the state, will meet, among others, with the film director Rafael Ramos, manager of Café Madrigal, a very popular establishment among the LGBTQ community on the island.
Both will discuss the current situation of the members of that community within Cuban society, noted his campaign.
In the same way, he will visit the Paladar Atelier and talk with his owner about “the challenges and new opportunities that small entrepreneurs are experiencing in Cuba”.
Florida will renew its 27 seats in the federal House of Representatives on November 6, but first the parties must choose the official candidates in the August primaries.
