Wes Hodge. (Photo courtesy Hodge)
ORLANDO | Wes Hodge grew up in Orlando, getting his degree in business administration at the University of Central Florida, and worked for 16 years in real estate. He beat cancer twice, has worked on campaigns with former Congressman Charlie Crist and state Sen. Linda Stewart and served as Orange County Democratic Party Chair.
Now, with his campaign for Orange County Supervisor of Elections, he is working to become the first LGBTQ+ constitutional office holder in Florida.
Hodge sat down with Watermark for an interview going over his life, his hopes for the future and his goals if he wins the election.
Hodge’s career leading to this point is a wide road of experience around politics and the SoE office, that all started with his first cancer diagnosis.
“In 2008 I got diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and then got labeled with preexisting conditions, and I realized I did not have any kind of meaningful health insurance,” Hodge says.
This pushed him into health care advocacy until 2012 when Hodge’s lymphoma came back. But this did not hinder his ambition and drive for activism and advocacy.
“In between chemo, I would spend a week in the hospital … a week feeling like I got hit by a truck and then a week knocking on doors, taking to people, sharing my story and explaining why we had to reelect President Obama,” Hodge says. “The night of the election, his Central Florida team rolls in my hospital room … so we were able to celebrate that victory together, but that kind of got me more involved.”
From there he went on to work with Crist’s gubernatorial campaign in 2014 and then work as the treasurer for Stewart’s senate campaign in 2016.
“After that campaign I got elected as party chair, served there until 2022 and really worked to flip this county. When I took over it was one Democrat, six Republicans on the county commission. When I left it was one Republican and six Democrats,” says Hodge.
It was during his time as the party chair that Hodge got involved with the SoE office.
Hodge says that he fell in love with the idea of voter empowerment and doing what he could to get more people out to the polls, showing them the power of their vote. It was this passion for the work and his knowledge and understanding of the office that pushed him to run for the position.
“This is where my passion is, this is where I feel like I can do the most good with my skill set. … We’ve had a couple of different events where all the candidates have been present, and it is clear who the subject matter expert is,” says Hodge.
When asked what he would do if he won the office, Hodge had plenty to say about his goals. With ideas for more community engagement and outreach, an early-voting appointment system to decrease wait times, more voting locations and longer voting hours.
Hodge’s biggest goal is to make it easier for more people to vote. With long lines, fewer locations and inadequate accommodations, Hodge says it is too hard for so many people to have their voices heard.
“Increasing accessibility across the board; parents with kids, kids taking care of their parents, seniors in Florida heat, people whose jobs don’t facilitate standing in line for an hour and a half. All those people may not have the opportunity to vote,” says Hodge. “That is a form of voter suppression, so I want to make sure we minimize those lines as much as possible.”
This is a problem that Hodge says can be solved by voting appointments. Allowing people to go online or call the SoE office to set up an appointment for a specific time at a specific location and not have to wait in line when they go to early voting.
Hodge says its also important to him that LGBTQ+ voters are protected. Because of this, Hodge says that if he is elected, he will ensure that staff is being trained to be welcoming of trans and nonbinary people to ensure that those voters can confidently vote free from judgement.
“With the new directive … on gender identity markers for state IDs and drivers licenses you are required to have an ID that matches your birth gender, no matter what your gender identity is,” Hodge says. “If you registered to vote previously, you now have a mismatch gender between your driver’s license and your voter profile, and I want assurance that that’s not going to be used as a way to disenfranchise people when they show up to vote.”
While Orange County has committed to not checking gender when voting, Hodge says he is still concerned for trans and nonbinary voters as hormone replacement or therapies can affect a person’s appearance and may result in a driver’s license photo that does not match. Because of this, Hodge stressed the importance of updating your state IDs to remove any potential issues.
“That’s probably one of the biggest things I’m concerned about impacting our community,” Hodge says. “I’m working to hold some voter education for transgender and nonbinary voters ahead of August and November, so that they know what the rules are coming into play.”
With the potential to make history as the first LGBTQ+ person in a Florida constitutional office, there’s more riding on Hodge’s campaign than just this election and his goals.
“It’s not that I would be the first, but I wouldn’t be the last,” says Hodge. “That ability to open up the door for someone else to come in after me … this is another opportunity to break down another barrier, to bring more people to get involved.”
As an LGBTQ+ person in Florida, Hodge says that breaking these barriers is essential, whether he’s the one to do it or not, it must be done.
“We have a governor and a legislature who are actively banning books and actively trying to erase history and actively trying to erase our marginalized communities,” says Hodge. “Black history, Hispanic history, LGBTQ history, LGBTQ books, books by Black writers. All of these things are trying to be banned or erased or suppressed. What better place than Florida to continue writing that history and continuing to write that book as they’re trying to erase it.”
Primary elections will be held Aug. 20 with the general election taking place on Nov. 5.
More information about Wes Hodge’s campaign and his plans as supervisor of elections office can be found at WesHodgeOC.com.
Additional reporting by Jeremy Williams.
