The Florida House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted on Wednesday to remove and replace a statue of Confederate Army General Edmund Kirby Smith in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall.
The vote was 83-32.
The move to take down Smith’s statue began in earnest last summer, after South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley took down the Confederate flag from its State House grounds, opening up the discussion about Confederate symbols. Haley’s move occurred after a white gunman killed 9 black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina. It was later revealed that the shooter, Dylann Roof, had photographed himself holding the flag and made clear he was motivated by racism.
One of those opposing the measure in the House was Brandon Republican Ross Spano.
In reaction, Rena Frazier, one of two Democrats competing to face Spano in the Eastern Hillsborough County House District 59 seat this fall, blasted him as casting a “shameful” vote.
“Today’s vote by Ross Spano is an embrace of the Donald Trump wing of the Republican Party,” Frazier said Wednesday night in a statement. “It’s a worldview that glorifies an era of inequality and discrimination by race, gender, ethnicity, and orientation. It is shameful that with our legacy of great Floridians, Ross Spano has opted to back a Confederate General over countless other inspirational Florida leaders of the past.”
Frazier went on to say that, “Florida’s contribution to the National Statuary Hall should represent the vibrant and diverse state that we are today, not act as a reminder of one the most painful periods of our history.”
Frazier is running against Naze Sahebzamani in the HD 59 Democratic primary this August.
