ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Democratic National Committee will grant $100,000 to the Florida Democratic Party to be used to reach Puerto Rican voters sought after by both parties.
- DNC Chairman Tom Perez visits Puerto Rican leaders in Orlando
- DNC to grant $100,000 to Florida Dems to reach Puerto Rican vote
- Leaders agree on need to educate evacuees on mainland politics
DNC Chairman Tom Perez made the announcement Wednesday morning at the Carpenters Regional Council in Orlando, where he met with Puerto Rican leaders to discuss how can they approach the thousands of evacuees eligible to vote in
The meeting started with a discussion on the help that's needed for families struggling to get their lives back together after Hurricane Maria.
Perez and the Puerto Rican leaders also talked about the need to educate families on how politics work in the mainland.
"We see the trends being that so many Puerto Rican voters will register as "no party affiliation" or independent, because they're not clear on what it means to be a Republican in the mainland, or they don't know what it means to be a Democrat in the mainland," Florida state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando said.
Perez was scheduled to make one more Orlando stop Wednesday afternoon: He planned to meet with UCF's Student Association of Puerto Ricans and student new arrivals from the island. That meeting was scheduled for 3 p.m. on campus.