I am from the South Bronx \u2014 the poorest community in the country. I grew up in the congressional district represented by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; I even have a picture of me with her. I\u2019ve always connected with something she once said: sometimes you come from a community where your zip code often determines your destiny. For many people in the South Bronx, that\u2019s true \u2014 you\u2019re born there, and because of the economic realities, you live and die there.<\/p>\n
My mom was the one who managed to get me out of the Bronx, and the United States Marine Corps gave me the opportunity to be independent. We didn\u2019t have money for college, and I don\u2019t have a degree. Everything I\u2019ve accomplished in life, I\u2019ve had to fight for.<\/p>\n
I joined the Marine Corps, but under the \u201cDon\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell\u201d policy \u2014 institutional discrimination \u2014 I was discharged because I was gay. I was thrown out, became homeless, and that\u2019s when I got involved politically. That\u2019s how this whole journey started.<\/p>\n
I have fought for everything I\u2019ve earned. Some people have opportunities handed to them, but I\u2019ve had to work for each one. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t take anything for granted, especially when it comes to the people I want to represent. When I talk to someone, I want them to feel \u2014 and to know \u2014 that I am fighting for their vote.<\/p>\n
What is your vision for the San Diego County Democratic Party heading into the 2026 election cycle, and how would your leadership differ from your opponent\u2019s?<\/strong><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the reality: there are 124,735 voters who voted in 2020 who did not vote in 2024 [in San Diego County]. I don\u2019t know if you know, but 98.8 percent of that number \u2014 123,278 voters \u2014 represent the amount of voters that Joe Biden had, which were more than what Kamala Harris received in 2024.<\/p>\n So what that represents is more than 123,000 people that our party left behind, and it\u2019s an existential threat. We have to address this problem. That happened in 2024. The party\u2019s fundraising was fine. But we have to be able to acknowledge that something went wrong \u2014 that something went wrong while my opponent was in charge \u2014 and we lost thousands of voters in the South Bay.<\/p>\n Because of that lack of success, we lost major revenue bonds. We lost races that we probably should have won. What I plan to do is focus back on the things that are of strategic importance to the party, to start focusing on and unifying our party around the objective things we can do to address that existential question, which is: how do we get our voters back, and how do we expand our tent?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve identified three strategic corridors \u2014 in the north, in the east, and in our base in the south \u2014 in which to do different things, where we will have to engage in more community organizing. We need to lean in on communications, and we need to have a multilingual program, which we did not do an effective job with last time.<\/p>\n We have to acknowledge the reality that our party is demanding a fighter \u2014 they\u2019re demanding a party that fights for them, listens to them, and talks about the issues that address their everyday life: how to get better jobs, how to put food on the table, how to have a better quality of life, how to address the housing crisis. We need to lean in on all those communications and all those priorities of working people in San Diego.<\/p>\n We also need to make sure we are standing up for marginalized communities who are under attack right now. We have a situation where the [Trump] administration is going into our workplaces, instilling fear, dragging abuelitas out of their workplaces. They\u2019re incarcerating American citizens. They\u2019re putting the parents of military veterans \u2014 military veterans \u2014 in detention. That is a problem we need to stand up to as a region as well.<\/p>\n It\u2019s really helpful to elevate a member of the Latino community, a member of the veteran community \u2014 especially considering the importance that the military serves to our region \u2014 and that\u2019s also a benefit of my candidacy.<\/p>\n Some members say the fallout from the sex scandal you were involved in still affects trust in your leadership. How do you plan to rebuild that trust \u2014 particularly among those who feel your return may reopen old wounds?<\/strong><\/p>\n It was a horrible situation, and what I did was step aside so that the party could move on and do its important work. I stayed involved and advised in the background.<\/p>\n The reality is we live in a country \u2014 and a world \u2014 where we are afforded the human rights of the presumption of innocence and due process. Due process occurred, and I was cleared. That means we get the opportunity to lead again. We get the opportunity to live our lives in the sunlight again.<\/p>\n I would not wish what happened to me on my worst enemy. I spent years bedridden. I got very sick. The mental anguish of going through the type of thing that I went through \u2014 how it hurt me and how it turned me into basically a hermit \u2014 I wouldn\u2019t wish that [on anyone], especially for something you did not do.<\/p>\n It\u2019s being brought up again because surrogates of my opponents want to bring it up. In spite of the fact that there is clear and compelling evidence that I did not do the thing, they\u2019re bringing it up because it\u2019s political. But here\u2019s the thing: I didn\u2019t do the thing. And in the grand scheme of things, it\u2019s a distraction.<\/p>\n We have so many important things to do. I can\u2019t change what has been said or written about me, but I can demonstrate the competency of my work. I can demonstrate my own merit. I can demonstrate the content of my character. I can do that by acting upright. I can do that by acting transparently. I can do that by acting with strength and grace \u2014 because grace is the providence of strength.<\/p>\n If anything, I learned from how this went down that we can treat our fellow people better. We should. Horrible people did horrible things to me, but we can treat people better. And that\u2019s what I intend to do.<\/p>\n Some members describe the party as cliquey and hostile to grassroots voices. Would you change that culture and ensure broader inclusion in decision-making?<\/strong><\/p>\n I have to say that I have experienced the cliquishness, and I have often been on the outside of it. I have experienced the nastiness of people creating a faction and then treating you as an outsider \u2014 even to the point where you feel like it doesn\u2019t matter what you do, if you\u2019re not in the right clique, you cannot advance. I feel a little bit of that going on right now.<\/p>\n I am the chair who opened up the Central Committee, who expanded our party. We grew our party by 24 percent in membership while I was chair. I created reforms that allowed for more people to serve on the committee. We created more membership classes in order to allow more people from underrepresented backgrounds to come into the Central Committee and serve. We diversified the Central Committee. I led a very diverse and younger executive board.<\/p>\n I come from a community where oftentimes your ZIP code determines your destiny, so I understand what it means to be on the outside. I live that struggle every day. Right now, we are seeing that I am literally the former chair who led our county to victory, and even now, certain cliques will not acknowledge or support me just because I\u2019m not a member of their clique. I see that as a problem.<\/p>\n We need to break that down \u2014 not by empowering the clique, but by opening up the doors. We bring more chairs to the table. We do more intentional community outreach. We invest in our efforts year-round to speak to voters and community members when we\u2019re not in an election cycle. We cannot have a party where you only hear from Democratic organizers when it\u2019s time to vote.<\/p>\n We need people in the community who are listening to PTAs, to different community groups, talking about stop signs at certain intersections or other hyperlocal issues. We need to get into the community outside of the election cycle so we can build relationships and expand representation.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just a Democratic problem \u2014 it\u2019s an institutional problem. Anytime you have an institution or a group of people, it\u2019s very common for them to create close-knit relationships, especially when you go through high-level fights. It happens in the military. It happens in community groups. If you go through shared struggles, you may establish that sort of cliquishness. But there are ways to mitigate that and make sure it\u2019s more open and welcoming.<\/p>\n Some members have called for the chair vote to be delayed to allow more time for forums and discussion. Do you support that request? Why or why not?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, no. The party has noticed this election properly, and we\u2019ve had more forums on this race \u2014 and more scheduled \u2014 than any party chair race in history. We have done four forums so far. I have one tonight, and I think there are still four more to go. There will be nine total in this race.<\/p>\n This has been the most transparent and public chair\u2019s race in the history of the Democratic Party. I think some people are operating on a bit of misinformation there.<\/p>\n On Sept. 5, it is very possible that the legislature will [hold] a special election to redistrict the congressional districts. If that\u2019s the case, that would mean we would be in a very high-profile, top-priority special election in less than a month. We need a chair before that.<\/p>\n We cannot afford to wait. The one thing we do not have \u2014 the one commodity we cannot get back \u2014 is time. If we push it back, first of all, we will have another month of these negative attacks. We\u2019ll just mire in the negativity, which will make things worse and be more divisive for the party.<\/p>\n Secondly, we will not be well equipped to wage the campaign we need to in order to save our country. We have to put our priorities first. The priority is to establish leadership, do the hard work immediately after the chair\u2019s race to unify the party, and then get to work on the special election, on the recall efforts that are happening. There are real, high priorities we have to get to now, so we cannot sacrifice the one commodity we do not have \u2014 time.<\/p>\n There\u2019s been a lot of talk about anonymous letters and negative campaigning from both sides. Have you seen these attacks, and what\u2019s your position on that kind of tactic?<\/strong><\/p>\n I issued a statement about this, and what I said was: leadership is often determined by how our teams are inspired to act in our endeavors. No matter how much one pretends to be a paragon of virtue, the actions of our close friends and supporters reflect upon us. I try to inspire my team to act with strength and grace. Others have appeared to choose personal destruction, disparagement, and division. I will never bow in the face of such vile duplicity, and I will not suborn such behavior on my team. Win or lose, I will do so on the merits \u2014 with grit and grace \u2014 and hope for the future.<\/p>\n I hope others will join me in choosing authentic grace over vitriol shrouded by the veneer of toxic positivity. You must stand against the politics of personal destruction.<\/p>\n That was my statement. I posted it on Facebook.<\/p>\n What I mean by that is this: this is a distraction. My campaign has a focus, and that focus is not in the opposition campaign. My campaign is about the 124,735 voters who were left behind in the last election \u2014 how to reach out to them, and how to expand our tent. The other campaign, the other side \u2014 whether because they know they\u2019re behind or for whatever reason \u2014 is going to focus on the negative. Their surrogates are going to focus on the negative. That\u2019s their approach.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not going to do that. We\u2019re going to focus on the issues. We\u2019re going to focus on the merits. We\u2019re going to win this on the issues. We\u2019re going to win it with grace.<\/p>\n So I think it\u2019s all a distraction, and I condemn it. I don\u2019t want any of my team, or anyone supporting me, to do something anonymous. If you have something to say, you put your name on it, and you stand in the sunlight when you say it. I have no place on my team for someone who does this type of thing. And I would hope my opponent would inspire the same in hers.<\/p>\n Latino turnout in South County dropped significantly during the last general election, and some precincts flipped conservative. What went wrong \u2014 how would you address this?<\/strong><\/p>\n Our party failed to field a multilingual, Latino, Spanish-speaking program in 2020. We did that in 2018 \u2014 in the middle of a pandemic \u2014 and we had been making great progress deepening relationships in the Latino community.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unfortunate, but my opponent was in charge of the area which represents a bulk of our Latino population in the South Bay, and unfortunately, it didn\u2019t come out for us.<\/p>\n We have to do a lot of things. First, we need to focus on the basics. We need to speak to Latino voters in the media outlets they are listening to, in the language they speak, and on the issues they care about \u2014 and that wasn\u2019t done by our party.<\/p>\n There are a lot of people who feel they have been left behind and that we\u2019re focusing on other things. The reality is we need to bring it back to what people care about \u2014 housing, jobs, putting food on the table \u2014 and make sure that is a priority. We still have to fight for the rights of all people. That is a bedrock principle. We cannot leave people in the dark, especially considering this administration.<\/p>\n We also have to make sure we deliver on our promises and that we are, in an intentional way, reaching out to the Latino community. It\u2019s helpful to have a Latino chair, but it\u2019s also helpful to just do the work \u2014 which is putting together a strong Spanish-speaking program.<\/p>\n This has been a tense, sometimes ugly race. If elected, how would you unite the party \u2014 especially those who supported your opponent?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, I\u2019ve done it before. I\u2019ve been elected in contested elections before. In those elections, I reached out to the other side. I brought them together. We broke bread.<\/p>\n A contested election is not a new thing. There\u2019s nothing wrong with it. People have a contest of ideas, and then in the end, someone wins. It is the mandate of the leader who is elected to reach out to the people who did not win \u2014 and we have to do that with grace. We must be graceful in victory, and we should be respectful in defeat.<\/p>\n Whatever happens, I am a Democrat and I\u2019m a patriot. I love this country and I love this party \u2014 in that order. I will do what I can to make sure we bring people together for the fight ahead. If I prevail, I will be well positioned to do that. I\u2019ve done that work before.<\/p>\n I was elected in a contested election in 2019. I unified our party, and I led us to a historic victory. We achieved that by coming together. I have a record for doing that that my opponent just doesn\u2019t have. I have brought people together and established historic victories with people who have very different ideas about what we should do and how we should do it.<\/p>\n We did that by establishing common ground, by breaking bread together, by treating people with grace, by raising the level of decorum in our meetings, and by setting standards of conduct. There was a whole list of hard work we had to do to get to that point \u2014 and we can do it again.<\/p>\n We have more to do now because we have a common enemy and a common goal. We have a tyrannical administration bearing down on our communities. People are being dragged out of their houses. People are fearful. We have so much more that unites us as a party than divides us.<\/p>\n I am well equipped and well qualified to lead that work \u2014 and I will do it, win or lose. If I were not to win, I\u2019m still the president of a major Democratic club, the Veterans Democratic Club, and I\u2019m still a major party leader. I have a responsibility to unify the party regardless. The chair\u2019s title almost doesn\u2019t matter in that respect. I will do that work regardless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Diego County Democratic Party will choose their next chair Aug. 19 in one of the most…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":150349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-150348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-sandiego","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115038180105286390","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Will-Rodriguez-Kennedy_0012-1024x683.jpg\")
Will Rodriguez-Kennedy in downtown San Diego on Aug. 14, 2024. \/ Ariana Drehsler for Voice of San Diego<\/p>\n