The COVID19 Pandemic

Anna has been a leading voice and advocate for Florida families and small businesses during the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. She helped to open one of Orange County’s first testing sites at the University of Central Florida, emphasizes the importance of wearing a mask, and practices CDC guidelines to stop the spread of this virus. She’s met with medical providers and connected both the state and hospital systems to potential PPE resources, helping to ensure doctors, nurses, and all who work in the medical field will be safe. Anna was one of the first public officials in the state to ask the Governor for a stay-at-home order, helping to save countless lives.

Tens of thousand of Floridians have relied on her office and expertise for support with Florida’s broken unemployment system. She has not only secured millions of dollars of benefits for unemployed Floridians, but she also fought to extend the work search requirement waiver and has held the Department of Economic Opportunity along with the Governor accountable for a system that was built to fail.

In addition to fighting for benefits, Anna has also focused on housing and food security. She’s worked with tenants and landowners to help prevent evictions and halt rent increases. She’s asked the Governor to put into place a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures while working around the clock to identify financial resources so folks can try to pay their bills on time. Early on during the pandemic Anna gained confirmation from one of the state’s largest utility companies that they would not disconnect customers for an inability to pay during the pandemic and she has restored power for Floridians who still faced disconnections. She’s worked with Second Harvest Food Bank to connect the hungry with nutritional meals, has delivered meals herself to constituents, helped to prevent homelessness by direct cash support to families and connections to local nonprofits, and ensured Floridians in need were able to process their SNAP and TANF applications.

Small businesses have been one of Anna’s biggest passions during this pandemic. She’s fought against big corporations for receiving major tax breaks and PPP loans while small businesses suffer and only receive $50 million of state benefits. She’s connected small businesses to CARES Act programs, and has been their voice with state agencies like DBPR. She’s amplified the work of multiple nonprofits, and has continued to promote local small businesses, helping to ensure Floridians who are able shop local, and help our small businesses survive.

She’s advocated for our teachers, parents and students, and wrote a letter to the OCPS school board asking for the start date of K-12 schools be delayed until August 31st, giving teachers and administrators more planning time and parents more data to make informed decisions. She’s also protected International students from being removed from the United States, working with higher-ed institutions in Florida to develop programs that would meet the unnecessary requirements of a recently implemented — and now rescinded — ICE rule.

While doing all of this and more, Anna has maintained constant communication with her community, hosting more than 30 virtual town halls, including a weekly Facebook and Instagram live session she hosts every Friday at 5:00pm. She’s also given up her state salary, donating those funds directly to families and Floridians in need. Her salary coupled with personal donations has resulted in more than $26,000 being given away to nearly 300 individual Floridians.

We’re not out of this pandemic yet, but Anna has risen to be a leader during this crisis and an advocate for everyday Floridians.