Janelle Irwin Taylor
As Americans (hopefully) wake up to news of Nevada caucus results, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign will be adding her focus to Florida as a big-get delegate state.
Warren’s campaign is hosting an LGBTQ+ and ally rally in St. Petersburg Sunday evening.
The event will feature Pulse Nightclub survivor Brandon Wolf, who became a nationally recognized LGBTQ and gun violence prevention advocate after the tragic 2016 mass shooting that claimed the lives of 49 people and wounded 53 others.
Wolf now serves as the Central Florida development officer and media relations manager for Equality Florida, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group.
Wolf is also a Warren surrogate.
Other speakers will include Samira Obeid, a local playwright and national speaker on LGBTQ+ policy, and Andrea Hildebrand Smith, an organizer with FACT, Floridians Against Corruption and Treason.
The event will be in the courtyard between Squeeze Juice Works and Black Crow at 18 22nd St. S. at 6:30 p.m.
The event will happen less than one week after Warren delivered what most believe was Warren’s strongest debate performance yet. On Wednesday night in Las Vegas as former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg took the stage for the first time since entering the race, Warren delivered a scathing rebuke to his policies and alleged treatment of women.
In one of the night’s most repeated highlights, Warren grilled Bloomberg over allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination and several resulting non-disclosure agreements among former employees.
Warren dissected the issue with prosecutorial precision as she pressed Bloomberg on whether he would release the women from their agreements. Bloomberg declined, calling the agreements mutually beneficial. Non-disclosure agreements typically do not benefit those being silenced, as former Vice President Joe Biden later pointed out in the exchange. (On Friday, Bloomberg said his company will release the women from their nondisclosure agreements.)
Pundits are questioning, however, whether Warren’s strong debate performance will be enough to carry her through Super Tuesday toward the Democratic nomination.
