by Bethany Blankley
Angel Mom Kiyan Michael (pictured above, right), a Republican state representative from Jacksonville, Florida, has come full circle from running for office, endorsing Gov. Ron DeSantis for governor, getting elected, and now endorsing him for president. She celebrated her bittersweet victory and legislative accomplishments this year, joining DeSantis last week in Eagle Pass, Texas, as he unveiled his plan “to stop the invasion at the southern border.”
Angel parents are those whose children are killed by foreign nationals who’ve illegally entered the country.
Her son was killed in a car accident by a twice-deported “illegal alien who should not have been here,” she said, which motivated her to run for office. In a campaign ad last year, she said the foreign national “ran into him and hit him so hard that he caused his car to flip and he killed him.”
She ran for office, she said, “because our families deserve an America First agenda. The pain that we experienced during our son’s tragedy will have purpose.” She and her family members, she said, were also “outspoken supporters of DeSantis’ efforts to create stronger laws related to border security to keep other families from having to endure a similar tragedy.”
She was elected in November and represents District 16 in the Florida State House of Representatives.
After meeting with DeSantis in 2019 and sharing her family’s experience, she said, “he wanted to make sure other lives were protected.”
The governor and legislature next implemented several immigration related bills; this year they advanced even more significant immigration reform bills, which she helped pass.
Along the banks of the Rio Grande River, she said, “I’m here because I know first-hand what it means when we do not secure our border. Unfortunately, what propelled me to run for the [Florida] House is because I knew the borders were going to be left wide open and because of what happened to our family in 2007 on August 15. Our son, Brandon Randolf Michal, all the way in Jacksonville, Florida – which would not have been considered a border town but because the failures here didn’t stop and the law was not upheld,” was killed.
FL Rep Kiyan Michal: “As Angel parents we are not going to stop securing our nation and preventing this from happening to somebody else. @GovRonDeSantis stood when others sat down.” Eagle Pass, Texas with @RonDeSantis announcing plan to stop #invasion. pic.twitter.com/3cwM763Rcm
— Bethany Blankley (@BethanyBlankley) June 29, 2023
Brandon was on his way to cash a paycheck “and he should have been safe in his own city, as should all Americans, when a twice deported illegal that came in through the southern border crashed into our child,” she said. “I can tell you as a mother, as a parent, it’s the worst thing you can ever hear,” she said of learning of her son’s death.
The perpetrator was sentenced to two years in prison as punishment, she said, after a lengthy trial process, and was deported for a third time.
“And that’s what propels me to not only speak out but to have a governor by my side from the very beginning,” she continued.
“As Angel parents, we get very tired of hearing, ‘we’re going to do something’ [from politicians] and nothing happens. But Gov. DeSantis sat down back in 2019 and sat across the table with sheriffs looking us in the eye, listening to our stories, wanting to hear from us what happened.
“I could see that he actually cared. We can tell a difference when people are real. This man is real,” she said, adding that he helped bring healing to her family and others.
She said she could see the tears in his eyes as a father when she shared what happened to her son.
Turning to DeSantis, she said, “You have stood when others have sat down. It takes ‘balldacity’ if that’s word, to do what you have done in the state of Florida. Everything you told us you were going to do you have done. And I thank you for that.”
“As Angel parents, we are not going to stop securing our nation and preventing this from happening to somebody else,” she continued.
While she’s now a state representative, she said, “I’ll always be Brandon’s mom.
“There is nobody else who is going to fight like this governor fights. There’s nobody else who means what he says and says what he does and means it.
“There’s nobody else who’s going to stand for every American and make sure that you’re safe other than Gov. DeSantis.”
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Bethany Blankley is a regular contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Ron DeSantis and Kiyan Michael” by Kiyan Michael.
