Carollyn Taylor Wants to Work for Those Who Serve in the Military. This Is Why It Matters to Boricuas.

The Democratic candidate for Florida’s House District 2 is also a strong ally of veterans and, if elected, vows to continue to look out for their best interests.

Florida is home to a great number of military families, como la de Carollyn Taylor, the daughter of a Vietnam War veteran with 20 years of military service. Growing up in a military family instilled in the Pensacola resident not only the utmost respect for those who serve, but a desire to look out for their interests. 

This greatly matters to our community, because como tú sabes, Puerto Ricans have long had a strong connection to the military. Es más, Boricuas as a group have been serving in the US military since 1899, both as volunteers and as draftees (until 1973) in every conflict in which the United States has participated for the past twelve decades. In fact, Puerto Ricans are the only Latino group over-represented in the military.

An Impending Threat

Es por eso que esta candidata running for Florida House District 2 (encompassing the eastern part of the Florida Panhandle along with part of the Big Bend region along the Emerald Coast) está en el radar de los Boricuas vinculados con el ejército.

“We need to work on homeless veterans,” the political organizer who worked for Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary told Floricua. “I have veterans crafting policy for me to address this problem. We should not be having those issues.”

Al mismo tiempo, Taylor, whose wife is also a veteran, quiere trabajar en un problema particularmente importante para Florida, home to 21 military bases, some from every branch of the United States Military.

“In northwest Florida we have a lot of [military] bases. One of the things I’ve learned about is flood resiliency, and how we address those issues, especially surrounding the bases,” she said. “We need to know how to make our bases more codified to take threats from the environment. I know this might not be popular, but I want to highlight the climate threat.”

And not just in relation to the military bases, she says, but also in relation to infrastructure in general.

“Florida is such a hot spot for real estate right now, but if we just keep building without state representatives working to protect the habitat and the sea creatures and everything that is being impacted, we are going to be in big trouble.”

If elected to the Florida House District 2, Taylor, who lives in Pensacola with her wife, Lt. Kate Katsen, USN Retired, and their three cats, will be the first LGBTQ woman to hold this seat.