Article
Courtesy of The Sun Sentinel
By Austen Erblat
Published December 16, 2019
A 21-year-old Republican college student,
environmentalist, immigrant and former intern in the White House has
launched a bid to unseat incumbent state legislator Emily Slosberg (D-Boca
Raton).
Sayd Hussain, an
engineering major at Florida Atlantic University, filed
campaign paperwork in hopes of taking control of Florida
State House District 91, which includes West Boca Raton, and
western Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, in the 2020
election. Hussain said he is campaigning on a platform
primarily centered around homeowners association reforms,
fighting elder abuse and pushing for stronger environmental
protections.
He calls himself a moderate Republican.
“My main campaign focuses are reforming the HOA and condo
associations in the state of Florida so that we can bring
rights back to the homeowners so that people can feel
comfortable in the homes that they live in,” he said.
“I do believe elder bullying is a real issue. It was covered
by the press for a reason, so it has to be a pressing
matter. I believe elderly people should also feel
comfortable where they live. They shouldn’t have to be
harassed by anyone in their own community. Lastly, is
environmental issues — conserving our environment and tying
that into infrastructure, making sure Florida has great
roads, bridges and things like that. Especially in South
Florida.”
According to state
census data, District 91 has just over 150,000 people —
about 83% of which are white, about 6% black, about 8%
Hispanic and just over 2% other — and the median age is
about 63. |
|
Sayd Hussain, 21, Boca Raton, has launched a bid for
Florida State House District 91, which includes portions west of
Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, in the 2020 election.
|
Hussain said he wants to avoid issues that divide people
and focus on those upon which people across the political spectrum can
agree.
“I shouldn’t have to force people to care about my issues, I want to just
attack the issues that everyone cares about but might not be telling
politicians,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or a
Democrat. I’m avoiding issues that are extremely partisan. And even if I’m
asked that, I go right in the middle. At the end of the day, this is a
Democratic district and the only way for a Republican to win is to not go
hardline on their party. You have to talk about things that nobody talks
about.”
Despite his sense that his campaign issues and positions are popular,
Hussain is aware of the challenges he will face, having already gotten a
taste of them early on in his campaign. They include his age, his name and
other hurdles he thinks he will need to clear between now and the 2020
election.
“Just being a 21-year-old running, that’s just a challenge by itself,” he
said.
“I have all the cards against me; I’m a person of color, I don’t come from a
political background — my family, they lived the American dream but not the
political American dream — I’m a 21-year-old student at FAU, I don’t have
that much name recognition, I don’t have that much money. So why am I
running? Well, I was recruited by the Republican party and they see
potential in me to actually win this race.”
Hussain said his resume — which includes internships in the White House and
the Guyanese embassy in 2018 as well as being a member of the Sustainability
Advisory Board for the city of Boca Raton — shows a history of work in
public service.
“When I have gone door-knocking over the past few weekends — I knocked on
over 100 doors — people don’t even know who their state rep is,” he said.
“They get confused with [Congressman] Ted Deutch or [Congresswoman] Lois
Frankel, so what I’ve been able to do is I’ve been able to educate everybody
that I’ve met. I make sure I keep saying, ‘I’m a State House candidate,’
because some people think I’m running for [U.S.] Congress… We handle taxes,
we handle the most direct influence upon your life, and because of that
education, I’m the only name they’re going to remember.”
The great-grandson of an indentured servant, the son of immigrants and an
immigrant himself, Hussain said his family is important to him, citing them
as an inspiration for his decision to run for office.
“My great grandfather was an indentured servant from India, taken by the
British to work on a sugarcane plantation, so essentially, he was a slave
from India,” he said.
“My grandfather decided he wanted to be educated and become a chemist, but
he still ended up in a sugar plantation because that’s where the market was…
Then he raised my mom to value education and that’s the key for us to get to
the next level and through that — I immigrated here when I was 1 1/2 [years
old]… My mom used to work graveyard shifts at a hotel on Hollywood Beach
while raising me during the day and my dad used to wash cars for $5 an hour,
but they were able to educate themselves… I’ve been able to learn from my
mom and my dad, if you really want something such as running for office, if
you work hard for it, you will get it.”
|