For many in the LGBTQ community, Florida feels like a lost cause. Republicans have expanded their grip on state government, anti-LGBTQ legislation has poured out of Tallahassee, and even longtime allies have switched parties.
But Joe Saunders isn’t ready to surrender.
The former state representative and longtime Equality Florida leader believes Florida remains the nation’s most important political battleground for LGBTQ rights — and that what happens here will shape the future of equality across the country.
“There is no option but hope,” he said recently in a wide-ranging interview with OutSFL. “We need to fight like hell here because this is our home.”
Saunders recently became the first executive director of Equality Florida Action PAC, the organization’s political arm. He’ll oversee endorsements, voter engagement and campaign strategy as the PAC works to break Republican supermajorities in Tallahassee and expand LGBTQ political power statewide.
Saunders believes Florida has become the place where political ideas are tested before spreading across the country.
“As they’ve made Florida the incubation lab for the worst ideas. That’s true for the resistance too. Florida knows Project 2025 because we’ve been living with it since 2022." he said. "Everything that we stop in Florida, we stop forever, everywhere They come here to cook up the things that they want to bring to scale.”
So how does Saunders hope to change Florida’s political trajectory?
It starts in the legislature. One of Saunders’ top priorities is breaking the Republican supermajorities in Tallahassee. Flipping just five House seats would end the GOP’s veto-proof majority.
There is reason for optimism. Earlier this year two Democrats flipped legislative seats from red to blue in a March special election.
Saunders is realistic about the challenge. Republicans currently hold a roughly 1.5 million voter registration advantage statewide.
For Saunders, House District 101 in Hollywood represents exactly the kind of race that could chip away at the GOP’s supermajority.
Republican Rep. Hillary Cassel switched parties after winning reelection as a Democrat in 2024, creating an opening Democrats hope to reclaim.
Equality Florida Action PAC has endorsed Todd Delmay, executive director of SAVE and a longtime LGBTQ advocate.
Beyond breaking the supermajority, Saunders said the PAC hopes to expand the LGBTQ Legislative Caucus from four to six members, win key municipal races and continue defeating Moms for Liberty-backed school board candidates.
Saunders said many observers underestimated the rise of Moms for Liberty but argued its influence has already begun to wane.
Saunders pointed to the PAC’s School Board Protection Project, noting that its coalition defeated 73% of Moms for Liberty’s endorsed and priority candidates in the last election.
Despite the many setbacks for Democrats and Progressives in Florida, Saunders insists that even when they lose it’s still instructive.
“It is in the trying that the sauce gets made,” he said. “The fight for a progressive Florida is a generational one.”
Regardless of the challenges of winning in Florida, Saunders remains hopeful.
“I think the pendulum we all hoped would swing last election cycle is here,” he said. “I really believe we have not scratched the surface of what’s possible in the assertion of our community’s political power.”
For Saunders, turning that potential into political power starts with participation. He urged voters to visit EQFLPAC.org, download the organization’s voter guide and get involved in races at every level of government.
📝 story by Jason Parsley
📸 photo via Equality Florida
Read this unabridged version online.
