Naomi Esther Blemur, the Democratic candidate for Florida agriculture commissioner, says the Florida Democratic Party is leaving her out of state efforts boosting their candidates.
Blemur is the long-shot bid against Republican candidate Wilton Simpson, who’s the current President of the Florida Senate.
She survived a harsh spotlight in the Democratic primary when her views on marriage and abortion emerged but she defeated two other candidates, gaining nearly 700,000 votes. Now, she feels neglected because of her past positions.
Blemur said she is not included in the party’s Blue Shift Florida program, a collective effort to pool resources and staff. Candidates are asked to contribute to the overall pot. Blemur was asked to contribute $40,000. She doesn’t have that kind of money.
According to a campaign finance database maintained by the Florida Secretary of State, she has raised $51,457, loaned herself $12,500, but has already spent $63,125. That would leave her with barely $1,000 going into September.
Blemur said she’ll have more than $10,000 in her campaign account by the weekend.
Simpson, the Republican candidate, has nearly $3 million to spend.
“The way you know who supports you is by how deep they go into their pockets. When they don’t open up their pockets or their pocketbooks, the message is very clear. You are not their candidate,” Blemur told NBC 6 and media partner Telemundo 51 in an interview.
NBC 6 requested a comment from the Florida Democratic Party. A spokesperson there wrote, “All of our Democratic candidates for the General Election in November across Florida receive support from the Party through our Blue Shift campaign, a state-wide coordinated effort aimed at turning out voters in all 67 counties and lifting Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.”
Blemur believes she’s being left out because of her more conservative religious beliefs.
“I think they are afraid to see the different parts of the party,” said Blemur, “Everybody in the party does not think the same way.”
Key Democrats have concerns and even rescinded their endorsements of Blemur during the primary. Abortion has moved front and center as an issue in the 2022 election after the repeal of the national right to an abortion with Roe v. Wade.
Controversial candidate
From North Miami, Blemur is a minister and businesswoman who has served on several city boards and advisory committees. This is her first statewide race.
She writes on her website her priorities are fighting poverty and hunger and supporting “quality education” and gender equality. However, her beliefs left off her website placed her in hot water when past social media posts on marriage and abortion were discovered.
In one social media post she criticized Reverend Raphael Warnock, who’s now a U.S. Senator from Georgia, for calling abortion consistent with the bible. In another post she called abortion a sin.
“Just like any other sin, it will never be consistent with Christianity. Period,” Blemur wrote.
The revelations caused several key South Florida Democrats to retract their endorsements: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, congressional candidate and state senator Annette Taddeo, and state senator Shevrin Jones.
Another post appeared to defend a singer who was removed from a gospel music concert after she referred to a “perverted homosexual spirit.” A screenshot of Blemur’s social media post showed her writing, “we have ‘Gospel Music Awards’ canceling a ‘Gospel Singer’ for ‘Preaching the Gospel.” Blemur never disputed the posts, but many are now deleted.
Progressive state representative Anna Eskamani wrote online that Blemur was “anti-LGBTQ+ and supports abortion bans. She definitely didn’t tell me that when she asked me to consider endorsing her.”
In response to the criticism at the time, according to Florida Politics, Blemur wrote, “the statement that is circulating…