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Rachel Brown (Florida)
Rachel Brown (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Florida State Senate to represent District 27. She lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Brown completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Brown was born in Naples, Florida. Her career experience includes working as a gardener.[1]
Brown has been affiliated with the following organization:[1]
- Lee Rights of Nature
Elections
2020
See also: Florida State Senate elections, 2020
General election
General election for Florida State Senate District 27
Ray Rodrigues defeated Rachel Brown in the general election for Florida State Senate District 27 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Ray Rodrigues (R) | 60.5 | 176,954 |
 | Rachel Brown (D)  | 39.5 | 115,537 | |
| Total votes: 292,491 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Rachel Brown advanced from the Democratic primary for Florida State Senate District 27.
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Florida State Senate District 27
Ray Rodrigues defeated Heather Fitzenhagen in the Republican primary for Florida State Senate District 27 on August 18, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ray Rodrigues | 74.8 | 47,958 |
 | Heather Fitzenhagen | 25.2 | 16,118 | |
| Total votes: 64,076 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Rachel Brown completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Brown's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I was working on my bachelors in environmental engineering when I was asked to run for FL Senate by the Democratic Environmental Caucus of FL. I have organized around climate action, attained a certification in Forest Gardening, and serve on the board of Lee County Rights of Nature. Part of my study focuses on nutrient runoff specifically in relation to the Caloosahatchee and Lake Okeechobee basins.
I was born and raised in Southwest Florida. My father comes from a long line of Floridians and my mother is a first generation immigrant from Costa Rica. Growing up in Florida I've seen constant construction on our roadways and yet it is still very difficult to get around lee county without a car. I've watched my city become urban sprawl as a result of a lack of smart city planning.
I believe a city should be planned around people rather than cars. As Florida has the third highest deaths due to car crashes per year in the nation we should focus police efforts towards keeping our roadways safe.
Activism: 2016 -spearheaded Human Trafficking education/awareness at Florida Gulf Coast University, went on an educational mission to Narok town, Kenya. 2018-petitioned for the Florida Cannabis Act (a recreational marijuana ballot initiative) with SSDP 2019-organized climate actions in Lee county.
2020-marching in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, challenging the current powers in a FL Senate Race.- You don't have a legal right to clean air and clean water. I believe you should. I serve on the board of Lee County Rights of Nature, and am fighting for your legal right to clean air and water to be defended in court. This fundamental right will allow checks and balances on industrial runoff. More environmental policy: we need more funding for research in climate resilience, a plan to carefully transition our economy off of fossil fuels, and invest in smarter city design that puts people first and cars second.
- Livable wage- when people are paid less than the cost of living, the cycle of poverty continues. No one has to be on welfare if they have a livable wage and healthcare. Our current system has justified not providing healthcare as part of compensation, by resorting most labor to "part time" and "temporary labor". This requires workers to work multiple jobs, and allows companies to get away with not providing healthcare for workers. Furthermore, some are forced into the black market and then are incarcerated which makes it even harder for them to get a job when they get out. The solution is to establish a livable wage that automatically adjusts at the same rate of inflation, decriminalize drug possession and invest in rehabilitation.
- Florida has the third highest death-by-car-crash rate in the nation. We need better city planning and safer roads.
- Colorado saw a 60% decrease in abortion rates after a 5 year free IUD Program. Birth Control is a preventative measure that the right and the left should be working together on.
https://coloradosun.com/2019/10/21/colorado-abortion-rates-keep-declining-free-iuds-and-easier-access-to-the-pill-are-the-reason/
Livable Wage
- Here in Lee county, the average cost of rent has increased by 19% since 2001 while the average income has gone up by only 4%. This means the cost of living (an inelastic product) is increasing with no regulation but wages are staying nearly the same each year. A livable wage is about assessing the cost of living and making sure that an individual gets compensated enough in order to not make sacrifices like health care and child care in order to keep a roof over their head.
-Small businesses and start ups are still allowed to pay an employee up to 1,000/mo in cash. A living wage will not hurt small businesses.
https://livingwage.mit.edu/metros/15980
Decriminalize Drug possession
-Drugs present a problem when an individual is addicted, using it to manipulate another, driving impaired or selling because they don't make a livable wage.
The solution? Invest in rehabilitation rather than incarceration, use police to crack down on reckless driving of all kind rather than policing people in their own homes, and provide aid to victims of sex trafficking rather than incarceration.
Leadership
-limiting nutrient runoff (pollution into waterways)
-working toward comprehensive police reform
Poverty is a systemic issue and it travels through generations. I have experienced homelessness and worked low income jobs in my life. Housing discrimination comes along with poverty as well. Someone who is part time in college and working low income jobs is not an ideal candidate for a rentor.
According to the Intergovmental Panel On Climate Change, Florida will be the first to experience the effects of climate change, and more specifically sea level rise. Being that Florida is a coastal enviroment.
A homeless man would come in to the dunkin doughnuts and the little caesars I worked at here in Ft. Myers. He was mentally ill and would never remember my name though we talked frequently and I gave him food we didn't sell. He would come in asking for work mainly, or to use the phone, or to ask for food. He said he used to work at Olive Garden as a dishwasher before he was laid off. He traveled on foot, looking for the library so he could fill out a job application.
Mr. Homes, the dishwasher at the last country club I worked at had to "take a leave of absence" per doctors orders because he had a physical illness that impared him from the physical labor of his job which he only received $10 an hour for (less than a liveable wage in Lee county-https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/12071). He also told me he didn't qualify for Medicaid because he and his partner had a combined income that was too high.
At Little Caesars we were required to through out the pizzas at the end of the night. We were not allowed to give them to citizens. On my last day, I took as many as I could pile on my bike and handed them out at the Days Inn. The receivers were very happy.
Also, at little caesars, a coworker told me he slept in a dumpster a couple times.
At Dunkin Doughnuts, my boss came into work after having neck surgery. She worked 60 hours that week and was not allowed to pay people over 8.75/hr.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
