Mario Jimenez is one of those parents who had his kids removed by Child Services because he prayed with them. No violence, no abuse, no neglect. In fact, Dr. Mario Jimenez is a physician and he’s been fighting for the return of his children since the day they were taken back in 2012. His story is published in full detail at SayNoToPAS.com.

“The more I think about a solution to stop the killing and abuse of our children and elderly while in the care of the state, the more I realize that the solution requires the involvement of our community, and it is not a one-man show,” Mario explains on his campaign webpage, “We need many more candidates to run. 20 Senate seats could be available in 2016, all odd numbers, and all of the House of Representatives, 120 seats.”

The candidate goes on to warn, “Almost on a weekly basis two children are killed under the supervision of the state – last count 534-plus in the last six years in Florida. Our present State Senators and Representatives have done little to nothing to protect them, ignoring the plight of these children and their families. Similar abuses are taking place with the elderly under Guardianship programs.”

Candidates coming forward

When we first spoke to Dr. Jimenez almost two months ago, he was virtually running alone. Today, he has an ever-growing list of fellow candidates running with him. So many, they recently decided to run together as a united candidate slate. Their plan is to run either as independents or as a new political party – the Family Party.

“We believe that our Florida legislators can and must do better,” Mario says, “For this purpose, we have Family Party members running in Senate and House of Representative races all across the state. We invite you to join us in defending our children and families.” As an example, he points to Mercedez Christian, “90 years young, running for Senate District seat 35.” He also lists the three main goals of the group’s effort:

• Create and find ways to enact and enforce laws that protect our children, our youth, our elderly, and our families, making government servants accountable for their actions, protecting the citizens of our state.

• Increase public transparency at all levels of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our state.

• Restore checks and balances among the three branches of the government.

All the right moves

As readers are ceaselessly reminded by your sometimes less-than-humble author, I have 25 years of precinct-level experience with independents and third parties, their candidates, and their elections. And that’s why something caught our attention at Opposition News regarding Dr. Jimenez and his fellow candidates – they’re doing everything right so far.

For starters, like many Americans, they vote for Democrats or Republicans but are actually independents. If they’re going to run for office, they’re going to be true to themselves and their politics. Second, they’re memorizing the election code, reminding each other about the hidden landmines the establishment has in place to keep independents and opposition parties off the ballot. They have no intention of seeing any of their candidates kicked off the ballot, and they’re well aware of the more difficult requirements for candidates who aren’t Democrats or Republicans.

“We are looking into creating a new party, the Family Party,” Mario tells us, “Although challenging at first, it will help us all in the end. It might even go national if other states catch onto the idea. I believe that we need to go after the State Senator and Representative seats in each state, and start a nationwide movement. Take a look at what we are doing in Florida.”

Mario’s opponent – Anitere Flores

Mario Jimenez has a fight on his hands in 2016. His opponent is Republican incumbent Anitere Flores. State Senator Flores has rapidly risen up the Florida Republican Party establishment ladder and won non-stop elections in the Florida House and State Senate during her 11-year political career. Jimenez says he knows his State Senator and is going to ask her to run for Marco Rubio’s open US Senate seat. If she doesn’t, he’ll run against her.

Flores is from the Bush family political machine, having served as one of his advisors. She is also pulling double-duty by moonlighting as the President of Doral College – a brand new, scandal-plagued, for-profit school that doesn’t actually exist. And that’s where the skeletons in her closet can be found. When FL State Senator Anitere Flores served as Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s education advisor, a charter school company called Academica credited her with getting one of its new for-profit colleges – Doral College – a license to operate in the state.

Flores is now a State Senator and simultaneously President of Doral College. She is also the target of scandalous critiques of Florida’s corrupt for-profit education system. Take this example from the website CashingInOnKids.com, “Don’t expect to find any actual college students at Doral College; it currently doesn’t enroll any. That hasn’t prevented the college from collecting more than $850,000 in taxpayer dollars.”

So while independent and new party candidates like Mario Jimenez have an uphill road to climb, it’s not impossible. And sometimes the incumbent is ripe for defeat. For more information about Mario and his slate of candidates running for parents’ rights, visit their new Party website at VoteFamily.us.