In this episode, Laura Loomer provides an update about the coronavirus outbreak in Florida and the safety measures her campaign is taking to ensure the safety of her campaign workers and volunteers. She also explains why she is calling off her petition drive.
00:00:03.000Hi everybody, Laura Loomer here, your Republican congressional candidate for Florida's 21st congressional district.
00:00:09.000I wanted to give you guys an update about my campaign and some safety measures we're going to take going forward on this campaign in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.
00:00:18.000Recently, Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis issued a public health safety emergency after there were several reported cases of the coronavirus in Florida.
00:00:27.000Several people in Florida have already died from coronavirus and just the other day an individual who attended an event at the Palm Beach Convention Center and went out of state tested positive for the coronavirus.
00:00:39.000And so because campaigning involves a lot of on-the-ground grassroots activity, shaking hands, getting petitions signed, exchanging pens, going to events, going to rallies, being in close proximity with people, right, in the middle of a virus outbreak, it's probably not the safest thing to do.
00:00:57.000And so as the leader of this campaign, I have made the decision to halt and end my petition drive.
00:01:04.000And so I'm going to be paying to get on the ballot because no campaign is worth the risk of putting potential voters, constituents, or my wonderful volunteers at risk while this virus is active and spreading.
00:01:19.000And there's still a lot of unknown answers and confusion about how many cases there are.
00:01:29.000We're still going to resume everything with the campaign accordingly.
00:01:32.000We're just going to really be limiting a lot of the personal interaction until things calm down with the coronavirus outbreak.
00:01:40.000And I just really want to make sure that we're keeping people safe in this country because making America safe again is really central to my platform as a congressional candidate.
00:01:49.000And I want to make sure that the nearly 850,000 people who I'm going to be representing in Congress once I win, a lot of whom are over the age of 60 and most susceptible to the coronavirus, are healthy and safe.
00:02:03.000And so we'll be sending out a lot of emails and we're going to be transitioning to making a lot of phone calls and doing a lot of our day-to-day campaigning online instead.
00:02:13.000And so I would just really encourage all of you to stay calm, wash your hands, make sure that you're doing things that would limit the spreading of germs.
00:02:23.000And I'm sure that this is going to pass very soon.
00:02:26.000And we all need to be happy and healthy and safe if we're going to have a wonderful election victory in the primary on August 18th and also in the general election in November.
00:02:40.000And so I'm really looking forward to seeing and talking to you and answering all of your questions if you have any concerns.
00:02:47.000And if you want more information or you want to get in touch, just go to lauralumerforcongress.com and don't forget to vote for me on the August 18th Republican primary.