Miguel “Mike” Santiago Veléz

NS Nation Name: Sanabel
Character Name: Miguel “Mike” Santiago Veléz
Character Gender: Boy
Character Age: 54
Character Height: 5’11”
Character Weight: 190 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: Governor of Florida (2014-), United States Trade Representative (2009-2013), Chair of the Florida Democratic Party (2007-2009)
Character Appearance:

Character State of Origin: Florida
Character State of Residence: Florida
Character Party Affiliation: Democratic

Main Strengths: Experienced, skilled debater, no-nonsense, pro-growth record, skilled at coalition building.
Main Weaknesses: Business ties, establishmentarian, can come off as insincere, seen by Republicans as benefitting from political patronage.

Biography:
Salvador Veléz was the scion of a family in Cartagena, Colombia, who rose to prominence as Peninsulares during the colonial era, operating a large import-export business. He was born in 1928, he came to take over the family company at the wrong time. In the early 1960s, civil conflict erupted in the South American country, threatening the security of not just himself, but of his Mestizo bride Marisol, and their young son Raúl. So, the family of three left Colombia for safety and hopefully, prosperity in Miramar, Florida.

In Florida, the family faced some discrimination. Fortunately, Salvador’s connections to American companies through trade allowed for him to secure a middle management job at Western Union’s Latin American office, which was based not far from Miramar. In 1964, within a few months of the family’s arrival, Salvador had a second son, Miguel. Though they were no longer wealthy, the Veléz family lived a middle class lifestyle and were able to provide a comfortable life for their children.

Throughout his childhood, Miguel wanted very badly to be American. He played football despite his poor ability and glasses, went by Mike, and did his best to have an American accent.

A decent student, Mike was able to get into the University of Michigan. There, he studied accounting, earning a BS degree on the subject in 1987. After that point, he went to work alongside his father, at Western Union Latin America’s internal auditing department. Shortly after, he married the daughter of a family friend. They had their first son in 1990. In 1992, the Achieva Credit Union in the Tampa metro area offered him the position of Financial Manager. Seeing an opportunity to be promoted more quickly, he was inclined to accept. Sweeting the deal, the large credit union offered to pay for him to earn his MBA at the University of Florida. Mike accepted the opportunity, and moved his family to Pinellas County.

In 1999, Mike was elected by the members of the credit union to a seat on its executive board. A skilled coalition builder and accountant, in 2001, he was elected as the CFO. Meanwhile, he had been inspired to become involved with politics following the deployment of his brother Raúl, a colonel in the Florida National Guard to Iraq. He joined the Democratic Party to oppose the war, having been an independent prior.

He became a principal fundraiser for the relatively weak Pinellas County Democratic Party during the 2004 election. He proved skilled in this position, reaching out to both small and large donors. After raising a decent amount of money, Veléz was elected as chairman of the organization in 2005. During this time, he continued to hold his position at the credit union.

In 2006, the Pinellas County Democratic Party was able to flip a couple of state legislative seats to the Democrats, and nearly unseated the long time Republican incumbent in what was then Florida’s 10th district. This catapulted Veléz within the Florida political scene, allowing him to make a successful bid for Chair of the Florida Democratic Party, winning votes among party delegates over a former state legislator. After this, he resigned his position at Achieva and moved to Tallahassee part time.

In the 2008 Democratic primary election, Veléz endorsed senator Baharia, even while most of his colleagues supported Clifford. Veléz fundraised for the Baharia campaign in the general election, and worked to coordinate the Florida Democratic Party with the campaign. This helped, at least in part, to deliver a strong win for Baharia in the large swing state. Baharia recognized his skill as a fundraiser, and developed a working relationship with him over the course of the campaign.

Citing his no-nonsense style and business experience, Baharia appointed Veléz as Trade Representative in mid 2009. Some viewed him as unqualified, as he had minimal experience in international business. Others viewed his nomination as a case of political patronage, given his previous position. Almost all Republicans voted against his confirmation, as did a few Democrats, but the senate majority was enough to earn Veléz the position. This was something many Republicans have not forgotten.

As Trade Representative, Veléz focused quite a bit on protecting intellectual property. He worked to craft the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, and entered the United States in Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations with the explicit purpose of standardizing protections for intellectual property. Continuing his anti-China streak, he brought a case to the World Trade Organization which argued that Chinese censorship was a barrier to free trade. The case was tabled. Veléz was publicly dismayed at the private nature of the Trans Pacific Partnership’s early rounds of negotiations, and warned President Baharia that it could negatively impact the agreements future ratification.

Throughout the 2012 election, Veléz took a very public presence. He appeared across the cable networks to defend the administration’s economic record. He also stumped in Florida, Nevada, Colorado, Virginia, New Hampshire, and North Carolina, often in Spanish. It had the purpose of turning out Hispanic voters in states heavy in that demographic, or turnout Hispanic voters in states where every margin counted. As a prominent Hispanic member of the Cabinet and the first Hispanic Trade Representative, Veléz was useful to the re-election campaign.

About 6 months after the 2012 victory, Veléz resigned from his position, quietly urged by the Democratic establishment to run for governor of his home state. Veléz had hoped for a promotion to Secretary of Commerce or even State when it became clear Baharia’s first secretary was on the way out. However, when it became obvious that the party wanted him to go in a certain direction, he moved back to Florida.

Almost immediately, he built a campaign for the gubernatorial primary. In a three way race against the 2010 nominee, a former Representative, and the minority leader of the state house, Veléz won by tying himself to Baharia and out-raising his opponents, using his position as former state party chair to his advantage.

Then he shifted gears toward the general election. The incumbent was a divisive Republican, who was a former executive with minimal campaign experience. Though greatly outspent by the incredibly wealthy governor, Veléz was able to eek out a victory by half of a point, with one of the only gubernatorial pickups of the cycle for the Democratic Party. To do it, Veléz used his connection with Baharia to turn out black voters, winning overwhelming support from that demographic. He also took a pragmatic approach on the issues, and used his heritage to undercut the Republicans’ uncharacteristic Hispanic support in the state. Veléz ran ads attacking the incumbents hesitance to debate, as well as his connections to an FBI investigation of a company he previously worked for. Veléz promised environmental protection, to stimulate economic growth, to lower the poverty rate, to expand Medicaid, and to fully fund the Affordable Care Act.

Upon taking office, Veléz reversed a lot of actions taken by his predecessor. He made the decision to accept federal funding for the construction of a high speed rail from Tampa to Orlando. He put a gubernatorial moratorium on the death penalty. In 2015, he successfully passed a medicaid expansion. In that year, he also expanded the number of CDC grants in the Orlando and Miami areas to fight AIDs. He signed legislation giving DREAMers in-state tuition. He oversaw the legalization of medical marijuana. He continued to fund water management, and passed legislation protecting the everglades. He compromised with legislative leaders to raise teacher salaries by 5,000 dollars per year. However, executive action seeking to make Florida carbon neutral within 30 years failed miserably and was overturned by the courts as an overstep. An attempt to copy New York’s campaign finance laws failed, as did an attempt to create a nonpartisan redistricting commission. Finally, an attempt at increasing the income tax was shot down early on. Veléz routinely vetoed bills expanding gun access and stand your ground laws. He also vetoed laws banning sanctuary states, in his most controversial move of all. He also routinely pigeon-holed charter school expansions.

Following the Pulse and Parkland shootings, Veléz sought aggressive gun control action. It was rejected by the state legislature, but compromise was reached on many measures, including raising the gun purchasing age to 21, banning bump stocks and other modifications, banned felons and the mentally ill from owning guns, though he used a line veto to block funding allocated to arming teachers.

Veléz rose to national prominence with his successful handling of hurricanes Irma and Harvey, which has come to be seen as a model response. His presence on cable television during and after the storms brought him back into the spotlight.

Going into 2018, his re election campaign was seen as at risk. The election was rated a tossup, as he went up against an inflammatory former Congressman in the mold of President Wolf. The Republicans attempted to paint the pragmatic governor as a socialist, citing his campaigns to raise taxes and limit carbon emissions. Veléz did not mention the new deal, or medicare for all, saying he believed healthcare to be a national issue. He cited the successes of his administration with helping teachers, stimulating the economy, and protection of the environment as reasons he deserved re election. Buoyed by messaging, the national environment, his ability to undercut Hispanic GOP support, and his success with disaster management, Veléz eked out a victory of about one point, which fortunately did not require a recount. The campaign was very nationalized, and was one of the marquee races of the year, greatly increasing the governor’s national profile.

Governor Veléz has made it clear that further medicaid expansions, legislation on Everglades regeneration, gun control, and an expansion of Florida’s voluntary pre-K program are in the cards for the new term. He has been touted increasingly as a potential 2020 contender, especially after his re-election success.

Other Info: He is Roman Catholic. He has two sons, Raúl and Pedro. He and his wife maintain their home in Pinellas County. Enjoys watching college football. Is reasonably popular in Florida.

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: Dr. San