>>Welcome back, a couple weeks ago,
Raquel Pacheco jumped into the State Senate race,
because she did not wanna see
Republican Ileana Garcia go unchallenged.
Garcia, as you will recall, won her seat by 34 votes
after a ghost candidate was put in the race
to siphon votes from her opponent.
For her part, Pacheco, a Democrat,
ran last year unsuccessfully
for Miami Beach city commission,
but she did better than expected for a first-time candidate.
A single mother, she is considered
the underdog in this race,
in which Republicans will spend millions to attack her,
and keep Garcia in office.
So I asked her, why is she doing this?
>>You know, I've been in service from a very young age.
It all started at the age of 19,
when I joined the Army National Guard
in my home state of Connecticut.
And I went on to become the first Soldier of the Year,
the first female Soldier of the Year in the state's history.
Since then, I've remained an active member of my community.
And so when Representative Grieco
could no longer stay in this race,
it was instinctual for me to jump in, because quite frankly,
I'm just really concerned.
I'm concerned with, with the cost of living,
with housing, with insurance costs, lack of workforce,
housing, and the extreme teacher shortage
that is facing our district right now.
And second, because I'm really sick and tired
of extremists, like my opponent,
spending their time chasing rainbows and unicorns,
instead of addressing the real issues that impact our lives,
and the lives of our children in real ways.
I think that we deserve better,
and I know that I can do better.
>>All right, let's try to get into some specifics here.
What exactly in your opponent's history,
and you're running against Ileana Garcia
for the Senate district, what is it about her record
that you find objectionable,
that you think is outta step with the district?
>>Well, for starters, I think that her positions
on many issues, cultural issues,
are really simply outrageous.
Her opinion that being gay is temporary, for example.
Her position towards abortion,
and the fact that she in supports a full ban on abortion,
with zero exceptions,
and that somehow she figures that this is helpful
to women who are being sex trafficked.
Along with that are the actual things that she hasn't done,
like the gas tax.
She could have alleviated that
for a lot of Floridians in our district,
saving them $7 each time they fill up on their gas tank,
which, you know, translates into several hundreds of dollars
for a family of four on a monthly basis.
>>Wait, wait, wait a second,
Didn't she, she voted for the budget approved
that also calls for a gas tax holiday in October-
>>The holiday, yes, that's in October,
but she could have voted for a tax
that would've been effective immediately,
and it would've saved Floridians, in our district,
an average of $7 per tank, per fill.
In addition to that, you know,
she supported a $2 billion tax break
for insurance companies,
at a time when Florida homeowners, like myself,
are facing really outrageous increases
in our property insurance.
So there are things that I feel she should be focused on.
And instead, she's waging these cultural wars,
attacking the LGBT community,
focused on banning books, and attacking civics teachers.
And I think that she's just appeasing to her base,
and really trying to,
just sort of ignite the base and divide the electorate,
rather than focusing on real issues.
>>So you began to tell me why you oppose her positions.
Let me understand a little bit more
about what you are actually for.
So let's go through some of those issues.
>>Sure. >>Where would you place,
what, if any, limits would you place
when it comes to the issue of abortion?
>>First, I'm in full support of choice.
I believe in the woman's right to choice.
And this is why, for me this goes beyond abortion.
This goes about a woman,
this now points to a woman's right to choose her destiny,
to to plan her life.
When you strip away my rights to make decisions
about when I wanna have a child,
which is probably the most important decision
that most of us as adults make,
because it literally impacts every aspect of our lives,
when you take that away from me,
combined with stripping me of my rights to medical privacy,
you have essentially demoted me to a second-class citizen.
Now that is unconstitutional.
It is un-American, and it will not stand.
I served my country for six years,
and I will not be treated as a second-class citizen,
or stand by as people, like my opponent,
advocate for treating 50% of our population in such a way.
So first and foremost,
I think that when it comes to abortion,
it is a very personal decision.
I don't think that any woman is pro-abortion,
we are pro-choice.
And so when it comes to making those decisions,
I think it is strictly between a woman,
her family, her doctor, and her God.
And that's it, no government
should ever interfere with that process.
>>All right, you mentioned before,
you had said something about a $2 billion tax break
for insurance companies.
What you're actually referring to is what was passed
in the special session, in which a,
basically a supplement of the reserve fund of $2 billion
was put in place as a way of trying to guarantee
the survivability of insurance companies,
which had been going out of business
at a fairly alarming rate here in Florida.
There were a lot of Democrats in the Senate,
that passed overwhelmingly.
>>Well, look, I'm not necessarily going against
what Democrats voted for pertaining to this bill.
What I do say is that there needs to be more of a focus
on alleviating the pressure on us, the consumers,
and what I think some of the things that we could do,
is for example, we could underwrite citizen policies
to help homeowners stay insured.
We could also could have used that $2 billion,
put it in escrow to create a secondary insurance market.
We don't have enough insurance providers here in Florida.
Citizens, in fact, has become one of the only ones,
that for most of us, the only option that we have.
But what I would do first and foremost,
before I could make any further decisions
about what the best course of action is,
is I would put a freeze on these insurance rate increases.
I think that we've seen a significant increase
over the last year.
Some of these folks that I've heard from,
these insurance hikes could literally mean
the difference between
them being able to stay in their home and not.
>>I wanna talk about some other issues,
but I want to give you a chance to clear up a few things
that surfaced during your race for city commission
in Miami Beach.
You've had two bankruptcies
in your past. >>That's correct.
>>You filed for bankruptcy in 1998,
and again in 2017. >>That's right.
>>Can you explain to me why voters should support someone
who, basically trusting them with their tax dollars,
when you had problems in your own financial stability?
>>Absolutely, Jim, thank you for that question.
I'm glad you brought that up.
First, I wanna start off by saying
that I am extremely proud of the life that I've built
for me and my son.
A little bit of background on me,
I'm an immigrant, a refugee child.
I had to escape my country of origin, because of Castro,
and his communist forces.
My family, you know, we struggled as immigrants.
I moved here to Florida 20 years ago.
I've built a small business that I still have,
25 years later.
But I've lived a real life, and I've had real challenges,
and you're correct, I've had two bankruptcies.
The first bankruptcy was about two years
after I had opened my business,
and about a year before my military service ended.
And the second one was five years ago,
and that one is a particular interest,
because, you know, I got pregnant four years prior to that.
And as a self-employed individual,
of course, I have a private plan,
and it was then, it was then that I found out
that my plan did not include maternity coverage,
which seems to me, on its face, absurd.
If you're an insurance company,
and you know who you're covering,
as a woman with the built in parts to create life,
to make babies, I should be covered fully through my plan.
So after four years later, after my son was born,
after having paid all of those medical bills,
it caught up to me, and I filed bankruptcy.
And this is an issue that I know affects
a lot of Americans, a lot of Floridians,
a lot of people in our district,
who are literally one paycheck away,
or one medical emergency away
from having to declare bankruptcy, or being homeless.
But I'll tell you what, I think the reason why
people can trust me specifically for that,
I've lived their real life.
I've had real challenges, but I've persevered.
And like I said, I have a home, and I have a business,
and I have a healthy child who is thriving,
and I'm very, very proud of the life that I've created,
despite those challenges.
>>Well, let's stay with healthcare for a second.
Would you support expanding Medicaid?
>>I would, Jim, and I find it incredibly ironic
that the same party that is pushing, you know,
is trying to force women to have unwanted children,
or carry through unwanted pregnancies,
is also unwilling to help them in any way.
Expanding Medicaid, in this situation,
would include people of lower income.
So it's critical, it's critical,
especially if you're gonna put people in a position,
like having pregnancies or carrying through,
and having babies that they don't want, they can't afford.
So yes, I would absolutely support the expansion.
>>So you mentioned earlier that you served
in the Army National Guard in Connecticut.
First off, tell me why you got into the Army National Guard,
what drew you to that?
And second, when you hear folks criticize you
for claiming to be a veteran,
when they don't believe you're entitled to that title,
walk me through how you see that controversy.
>>Okay, well, first Jim, the reason I joined the military
is because I really genuinely wanted
to give back to my country.
Like I mentioned, I came here as an immigrant,
10 going on 11 years old, and I saw America,
and I saw this country
as the land of opportunity that it is,
and I wanted to give back, and I knew that instinctively
that in order to grow as an individual,
you have to give back.
And to be quite honest with you,
I was originally going to join the Marine Corps
for four years, active duty.
But I was sort of seduced by the Army,
because they offered me a college education.
So of course I thought, "Let's make the most of both
of this opportunity."
So that's what drew me,
and it was one of the best experiences of my life.
To those who say that I'm not a veteran,
I say this, anyone who serves in the military of our country
is a veteran of the Armed Services.
That's what I am.
There is a distinction between a veteran
of the Armed Services, and a veteran of war.
I have never claimed to be a veteran of war.
To those who criticize me,
I ask how depraved must you be
to attack a person who has served your country,
our country, honorably for six years?
And that, to me, speaks volumes
about their character, not mine.
So that is my answer to that question.