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Candidate facing backlash after saying Puerto Rican evacuees shouldn't be able to vote

A candidate for Florida’s 6th district Congressional District is under fire after comments he made about Puerto Rican evacuees.

In a video posted to YouTube, John Ward said, "Puerto Ricans shouldn't be allowed to register to vote in Florida.”

Many came to the mainland after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.

Action News Jax's Courtney Cole tried to give Ward an opportunity to defend his statements.

On his campaign website, he says he wants to "fight for Florida families" -- and he hopes "he can count on you to stand and fight with him."

That is … unless you evacuated from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

"I don't think they should be allowed to register to vote,” Ward said.

Ward goes on to say he thinks “the situation is improving a lot there” and expresses his idea of what he thinks the government should be doing to help Puerto Ricans.

"We should be looking to put the Puerto Ricans back in their homes."

In the video, Ward said he believes Democrats are only interested in their votes for one reason: “It’s not lost on me that I think the Democrat Party’s really hoping they change the voting registers in a lot of counties and districts, and I don’t think they should be allowed to do that.”

Action News Jax's Courtney Cole wanted him to explain why he feels this way, so she called him -- but his voicemail box was full.

She sent a message on his Facebook page, but she hasn’t yet received a response. Cole also tried to stop by his home in Ponte Vedra, but couldn’t get into his community.

While she wasn’t able to get in contact with Ward, she did speak to Nancy Soderberg, his Democratic opponent.

“It’s outrageous that any candidate for Congress, or any American, would challenge the right to vote of other Americans,” Soderberg said.

She says it's unacceptable to deny people the right to vote simply because they don't look like you or vote like you.

"They pay taxes. They contributed almost $4 billion — $3.6 billion in taxes to the federal treasury in 2016. In fact, those are the very taxes that helped pay for emergency relief here and in Texas,” Soderberg told Action News Jax.

She said right now, there are 10,000 active-duty U.S. personnel from Puerto Rico serving this country in the armed services.

More than 135,000 Puerto Ricans relocated to the U.S. after Hurricane Maria, many of them right here in Florida.

“Floridians themselves have been in the exact same situation. [Hurricane] Andrew in 1992 displaced a quarter of a million Floridians. And we needed help and we were welcomed by our neighbors. That’s the same attitude the Floridians have to Puerto Ricans coming to District 6 and Florida,” Soderberg told Action News Jax.