Democratic challenger says Maxwell Frost more interested in fun than peace

V. Issa White spent Ramadan organizing Bilal Ibn Islamic Center feeding events for Orlando’s poorest residents. When he couldn’t convince U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost to do the same, he challenged the Orlando Democrat on the ballot.

The Muslim leader last week qualified to face Frost in an Aug. 20 Democratic Primary, where Wade Darius also qualified to run. White said the region needs a Congressman who puts in the hard work to help Central Florida’s most marginalized.

“I’ve been to over 100 countries,” White said, “and within the district, now we have some of the worst poverty that I’ve ever seen.”

White alleged that Frost, who has hosted concerts in Florida’s 10th Congressional District and his office in Washington, treats Congress as his “playground” and a place to “have fun” instead of solving problems. Meanwhile, White said, others in the public seek change more effectively from outside of the Capitol.

But White voiced frustration with leadership throughout Washington. Angry at continued funding for wars overseas, including sending billions to Israel amid an ongoing conflict in Gaza, he wants change from top to bottom in leadership. That includes President Joe Biden, who faces re-election this year.

“As far as Joe Biden, the Democrats should find another candidate,” White said.

White notes that his father led the NAACP in Delaware when Biden served as a U.S. Senator there. He feels the Democratic incumbent’s record of tough-on-crime legislation and a three strikes sentencing law has disproportionately hurt Black Americans.

“He is an old-line war advocate,” White said of Biden, “and that causes more corruption. That causes more hostility and anger with countries that we don’t need to be in conflict with, as opposed to dialogue.”

He criticized a foreign aid package recently signed by Biden that funds Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan amid tensions with Hamas, Russia and China, respectively, and he slammed Frost for going along with that effort.

Importantly, Frost voted against sending money to Israel over concerns about killed Palestinian civilians, though he voted for funding for Ukraine and Taiwan.

“If he was concerned, he would have said we’re voting against war completely,” White said. “If he had enough sense, he would know something about the Ukrainian issue, how it developed and how it is just wasted money.”

There is one clear issue where White, a former Republican, is running from Frost’s right. White believes more should be spent securing the border. He says a flood of migrants has cut into federal resources that should go to infrastructure improvements domestically and to help those in poverty in the U.S.

“We cannot afford just an open-ended immigration policy that allows everyone,” White said. “I mean, our economy is in shambles.”

He notes that his own father was originally from Costa Rica, and even was deported once from the U.S., which made him all the more grateful to return to America.

But immediately, he’s frustrated that Frost, an activist before his election to Congress, and other Democrats in Congress have not listened more to pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country.

“Go back to Maxwell Frost. If he was really concerned about free speech and the protests like he said, he would be one of the first people to say, ‘I support these young people and they have the right to protest. I am against the mechanisms trying to suppress these people, trying to suspend them and create a criminal record against them,’” White said. “But he hasn’t done that at all.”

White said Congress also needs to address the rapid cost of living in cities like Orlando.

“We have 7 million homeless people in this country and we have the decline of the American dollar,” White said. “That’s going to be havoc on American society in terms of inflation. We have Americans being confronted at the grocery store with a loaf of bread for $4.”