It's really hard to separate family with politics
[when] your whole entire family is essentially politics.
Hannah Stargel is the daughter of Judge John K. Stargel
and state Senator Kelli Stargel.
So if you want to talk about a power couple,
try having one parent in the judicial system and the other parent in the legislative.
She has spoken out against her mother's anti-reproductive rights efforts and anti-trans legislation—
a point of contention as Hannah identifies as bisexual.
I don't think that [Sen. Kelli Stargel] looks at it as personal.
But if you're passing laws and making it to where, like, I can't do things
in the community—my friends, kids,
all these different things in the community cannot do these things—
it kind of becomes personal.
You're trying to separate politics and you can't.
We live in the state of Florida, and she'll pass these laws
that make it harder for us to just be ourselves.
In my opinion, they don't see the effect of what they're doing.
They're trying to do what they think is right,
but they don't realize
that they're limiting other people just based on their beliefs.
I really miss my mom.
But also, my mom is hurting the future generations and it kind of hurts me.
And so it's, like, very conflicting.
Hannah's mother is not the only one making decisions
that could impact people like her.
This year, while my mom was passing the 15-week abortion bill for Florida,
my dad started making headlines because of an abortion appeal decision.
A girl was denied an abortion, and she went to the District Court of Appeals
to see if she could get that abortion.
And my dad said that, no, she would not be able to get the abortion
because she had a C grade-point average and was not of the mental well-being
to be able to make that decision without her parental consent.
The bill that required parental consent for abortion
and so that you can look at GPAs
to decide on abortion was actually passed and sponsored by my mother.
That decision was later overturned by a different judge,
and the girl was able to receive an abortion.
They would teach you about all these Christian things and how, like, the oppression is.
And then I felt like they were kind of being the oppressors in my life.
And I felt like I had to stand up because that's what they taught me to do.
[Maddie Block] My dad was very much in favor
of the overturning of Roe v. Wade this year.
I just couldn't really reconcile the fact that my dad would support
policies that could hurt me.
It's difficult because on the one hand, he is my dad.
You don't want to think poorly of your family members,
but at this point, he's dug his heels in.
I really do think that he's chosen to support Trump
over the well-being of his family members.
Maddie Block's father is Sandoval County, New Mexico's commissioner, Jay Block,
who makes his hyper-conservative views well-known.
I think the main reason that I wanted to call this out
and talk about his political stances is because this isn't isolated.
This isn't necessarily unique to him.
There are a lot of Republican lawmakers who have daughters, who have wives,
and yet they're supporting policies that would be directly detrimental
to the women in their lives.
And yet, as we know, wealthy women,
or women who are adjacent to men in power, do tend to have—
they still tend to have access to abortion, whereas women who are low income,
a lot of women of color, just don't have the same access.
So I think that it is important to continue to call out.
Both Maddie and Hannah currently don't have relationships
with their respective family members who are politicians.
It's probably for the best at this point, because why would I want
to have a relationship with somebody who supports all these policies
that are directly harmful to me as a woman?
That's not to say that I don't miss having him in my life.
At the end of the day, he's my dad.
And when I was a kid, we got along great.
I'm not talking to my parents because I'm trying to, like, spite them.
I'm not talking to them because I need that boundary for my mental health.
Hannah's mother, Kelli Stargel, recently lost the primary race
for Florida's 15th Congressional District,
and Maddie's father, Jay Block, lost the primary race for governor of New Mexico in June.
Maddie has advice for people
who have family members who they disagree with politically.
If they are open to talking, if they are open to
having a real discussion and understanding your point of view,
I think talking to them is absolutely worth it,
especially if it's your parent or your sibling
or somebody who you are very close to and you don't want to lose them.
But if it's to the point that they are not going to listen to you
and they still are going to, you know, be supporting
policies and politicians that are dangerous,
then, you know, unfortunately,
I do think that the best thing to do is cut them off
because you don't need to waste your energy and harm your own mental health
trying to convince them to believe something that they are never going to see.
My parents are who they are through and through, and I will say that completely.
Like, they will stand to their beliefs.
They believe them strongly.
I just believe differently and that sucks.