Orange County District 3 Commissioner Mayra Uribe (L) and Florida Senator Linda Stewart. (Photos from each campaign)
UPDATE: Orange County Commissioner Mayra Uribe reached back out to Watermark to share a text message she received from Joee Antonio, who also goes by the name Jose Rodriguez, on Aug. 18. In that message, Antonio states “I’m taking several buses from church. A lot of them could not drive or taking them to the library until 7 PM them to vote for you when you have a chance let me know if I can be of any help in your staff, I met you at Target store on Sandlake Road one time a few years ago maybe last year I speak English in Spanish and, I want to help out the Latino community.”
During his conversation with Watermark, Antonio stated that he had voted for Linda Stewart and that he was taking individuals to the polls to support Stewart as well.
Watermark reached back out to Stewart by text, who says Antonio called her campaign around 4 p.m. the same day that Uribe received her text to notify her about the call that allegedly came from Randy Ross. Stewart stated that Antonio has been a supporter and volunteer of hers for a few months on his own. She also stated that she will be looking into the situation.
Watermark contacted Antonio and the calls and texts have so far gone unanswered. We will update the story as we hear back.
ORIGINAL STORY:
ORLANDO | The Rainbow Democrats posted to its Instagram Aug. 19 that openly gay Trump supporter Randy Ross has been calling Orange County residents pretending to be with the organization and encouraging them to vote for Orange County Commissioner Mayra Uribe in today’s primary election.
“MAGA hardcore Republican Randy Ross is calling voters in the [Orange County District 3] race on behalf of Mayra Uribe and claiming to be a part of our LGBTQ+ Caucus,” the Rainbow Democrats posted. “This individual is not a member, nor has he been according to our records. He is spreading misinformation on the eve of the primary.”
Matthew Inman, president of the Rainbow Democrats, says that Ross has been “a bit of a concern for a while.”
“Take anything he says with a grain of salt,” Inman added. “His history speaks for itself.”
The Rainbow Dems’ Instagram message came after Linda Stewart, candidate for Orange County Commissioner, District 3, reached out saying a constituent notified her of a call he had received during which the caller identified himself as Ross and encouraged him to vote for Uribe. Watermark spoke with the caller who asked to be identified as Joee Antonio in the story.
“He said his name is Randy Ross and that he and Mayra Uribe were working with the Rainbow Democrats helping LGBTQ+ individuals and asked me if I can support them on Tuesday for the election,” Antonio says.
Antonio says that he has been helping family and community members with early voting by offering rides to the polls for anyone who did not have transportation, leading to his phone number to be shared amongst several groups. He believes this is how the callers got his number.
“On Sunday, I was getting calls from numbers I don’t recognize,” he says. “That’s when Randy Ross called me. I told him thank you for calling but that I had already early voted, and I voted for Linda Stewart so it was too late for me to vote for Mayra Uribe. They told me that Linda Stewart isn’t an ally to the LGBTQ+ community.”
Antonio stated that while the caller said Ross and Uribe were working with the Rainbow Dems, the caller never said he was calling on behalf of Uribe.
In a statement to Watermark, Ross said “I appreciate the opportunity to respond. As you are possibly aware I am a Registered Republican and have worked on the Trump campaign since 2015. I have no knowledge of any such calls.”
Antonio says he received several calls throughout Sunday, answering only two of them; the one with the individual claiming to be Ross and another one that followed.
“It was a different number and didn’t sound like the first person who called and they said Mayra Uribe was a supporter of LGBTQ and that they would like me to vote for her,” he says.
Antonio states he did not answer any of the other calls that came in that day and no voicemails were left. The numbers that called came from 407, 813 and 727 area codes.
Watermark reached out to both Stewart’s and Uribe’s campaign for comment.
Stewart called the calls “disgusting” and said that when she notified the Rainbow Dems about them that they were “furious.”
“It’s just lying to people to get their vote,” Stewart says of the caller’s aquation that she is not an ally of the LGBTQ+ community. “I had Darcel Stevens, I had 600 drag queens come to the capital and stand on the steps in protest in Tallahassee. I marched with them to the Capitol and stood on the steps. You can’t find a stronger ally than myself for LGBTQ+ equality.”
Stewart added that the Rainbow Dems would never recruit Ross to make such calls for them, calling Ross a “Republican MAGA.”
“Years and years ago he was a Democrat and then he went off the deep end,” Stewart says. “Now he is a Trumpster and he is a very close friend of Mayra Uribe. Mayra appointed him to the membership and review committee for the county which means he gets to choose who goes on all the other County boards. She’s got the history with him.”
In 2019, Ross was appointed to the Membership and Mission Review Board for Orange County by Uribe.
“Randy was the only person who applied for the MMRB six years ago when I got elected and he lives in District 3,” Uribe says. “Everyone who wants to be involved in public office and volunteer, come on and volunteer. I’ve also had lots of Democrats who I’ve worked with.”
Uribe says as far as the calls that were alleged to go out encouraging Antonio to vote for her, she had nothing to do with it and would be surprised if Ross was doing that.
“Randy Ross is running for Orange County Republican State Committeeman against Pete Crotty. He would be automatically disqualified from running if he did that because they signed an oath where they can’t do anything for Democrats,” Uribe says. “I would be interested to hear not only if that’s actually factual and if it’s even his voice because he would totally be throwing his entire political campaign out the door for that.”
Uribe says that Ross has not done anything this election cycle for her, adding that she doesn’t even know if he plans to vote for her.
“He’s never even said anything promoting me period because it’s a violation,” she says. “The first time I heard anything about this was when you called my office. … None of this makes any sense. The Rainbow Dems endorsed her quite a while ago, why would I let this happen the night before the election and why would Randy Ross throw away his campaign to help me call people in District 3? I would never do that and I have never done that.”
The calls have left both campaigns defending their support for the LGBTQ+ community has voters hit the polls today.
“She won’t stand on the steps of the city hall when we’re protesting for transgender rights, she won’t do it,” Stewart says of Uribe’s support of the community. “I just find it bizarre that Randy Ross is calling around to my supporters as if there were some newly found LGBTQ advocate when she’s never done anything, nothing.”
“Wes Hodge was my chief of staff until he left to run for supervisor of elections,” Uribe says. “Ask him what kind of person I am. I was at the Diversity Gala and accepted the award for Orange County, I have consistently been supportive of the LGBTQ community. … Does Linda have a long career in politics where she’s done a lot for the LGBTQ community? Absolutely, so I wasn’t even mad when she got the [Rainbow Dems] endorsement. I was endorsed by the Orlando Sentinel, that’s how these things go. I know I have LGBTQ supporters and she’s done a lot for the community and has supporters too.”
Uribe adds that these kinds of distractions are “childish” and would “prefer to talk about the things that I have done for the voters,” pointing to attack mailers that have been sent out over the last several weeks.
“I represent everyone, I don’t discriminate,” she says. “I’m a Hispanic woman married to an African American, I have no room to discriminate against anyone. I’m proud of who I am and what I’ve done in this community and hopefully I get to continue to do it.”
Polls are open for Florida’s primaries today through 7 p.m.
