FLORIDA — Today the Human Rights Campaign PAC (HRC PAC) announced its endorsement of six LGBTQ+ candidates for Florida’s state legislature: Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (HD-37), Rep. Michele Rayner (HD-62), Adam Gentle (HD-120), Eunic Ortiz (SD-18), Janelle Perez (SD-38), and Sen. Shevrin Jones (SD-34).

HRC PAC is committed to engaging our volunteers, members and supporters to mobilize the nearly 4.2 million Equality Voters in Florida in support of pro-equality candidates up and down the ballot. HRC PAC endorsed Val Demings of Florida for U.S. Senate earlier this year.

Human Rights Campaign Associate Regional Campaign Director Ryan Wilson released the following statement:

“Every family and every child deserves the same protections as everyone else – to live their lives with safety, dignity, privacy, and free from discrimination. But in Florida and nationwide, a handful of extremist judges and politicians are waging a brutal and coordinated assault on LGBTQ+ people – especially LGBTQ+ children and young people.

“At a time when extremist politicians are working to roll back our rights. LGBTQ+ visibility and representation matters. This slate of LGBTQ+ candidates for Florida’s state legislature have advocated for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and have been leaders on a range of issues to advance equality for women, people of color, and other marginalized communities. They represent the diversity of America and are role models to LGBTQ+ people of all ages who aspire to positions of leadership. The Human Rights Campaign is proud to endorse this slate of pro-equality candidates and is committed to fighting alongside them.”

HRC’s Commitment to Florida

Equality Voters, including the 4.2 million in Florida, are a voting bloc of demographically and geographically diverse Americans who are united by the advancement of LGBTQ+ equality. Equality Voters are younger, more racially diverse, and more female than the general electorate, they recognize and trust the HRC brand, and they are more likely to identify with issue-specific organizations than candidates or political parties.

Across the country, HRC PAC works every day to elect pro-equality leaders who support policies that will support the rights and lives of LGBTQ+ people. During the 2020 election cycle, HRC staff on the ground recruited 5,800 individual volunteers nationwide who completed 28,500 hours of voter contact in more than 2,650 volunteer events. HRC engaged in robust digital and online GOTV efforts, including sending over 2.7 million person-to-person text messages, a massive increase from 2018 when approximately 500,000 texts were sent. HRC sent over 2.5 million mail pieces, had over 930,000 phone conversations with voters, and engaged more than 200,000 voters through HRC’s voter dashboard at hrc.org/vote.