Samuel Vilchez Santiago

Samuel Vilchez Santiago grew up in East Orlando after arriving in the United States as a young political asylee fleeing persecution from Venezuela’s authoritarian regime. Like many in our community, he arrived not knowing any English and struggled through his first days in school, depending on Medicaid and food stamps as his mom worked at a McDonald’s and his dad washed cars at the airport. Five years later graduated as Valedictorian of Colonial High School, going on to become the first in his family to attend college in the United States, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Politics degree at Princeton University and a Master of Public Policy degree at the University of Oxford. For more than a decade, Samuel has dedicated his career to public service as a nonprofit leader focused on immigrant rights, voting rights, and civic engagement. Today, as a Senior Nonprofit Manager at ActBlue, he supports thousands of nonprofits and community organizations as they build people-powered fundraising programs that shift influence away from corporations and toward everyday people. Samuel is running for the Florida House to fight for working families, affordable housing, strong public schools, immigrant protections, and a state government that puts people, not corporations, first.