As the anniversary of Hurricane Maria approaches, marking a full year in which the Trump Administration did anywhere from Nothing to Not Damn Much to help Puerto Rico repair and rebuild, the Latino Victory Project and Power 4 Puerto Rico are launching several efforts to channel the anger of now-displaced Puerto Ricans into votes against the Republican incumbents who sat on their hands during and after the crisis.
The largest of those efforts is a $1.5 million campaign to register Puerto Ricans displaced from the island and to recruit new Puerto Rican candidates to run for office themselves. Florida is the most prominent target, but New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Texas, and other states also have large numbers of recently displaced Puerto Ricans. Activists like Melissa Mark-Viverito of Power 4 Puerto Rico are fed up.
"We have a fiscal crisis that exists compounded by the emergency of the hurricane," she said in an interview ahead of Monday's formal announcement. "People don't have jobs to go back to, people don't have homes that have been rebuilt properly and there are families that continue to be displaced because of medical issues. Events leading up to the one-year anniversary are really going to highlight the reality that Puerto Rico is living."
In addition to voter registration efforts, Puerto Rico activists plan on marking the Hurricane Maria anniversary with public action. A march on Trump Tower will take place on September 20, and if you don't have anything planned for the following Saturday, perhaps you'd like to stop by Mar-a-Lago along with a few friends: Planners there hope to erect beachside crosses and otherwise remind the golfer-in-chief that the nation's large Puerto Rican community is not simply going to let him forget the still-ongoing crisis.