Glynn Loope, executive director or Cigar Rights of America, issues an open letter to anyone hoping to win the 2016 presidential election.
In the letter, which you can read in full here, Glynn argues that defending the rights of premium cigar smokers to choose for themselves whether they smoke cigars has political consequences, since smokers and premium cigar industry can influence electoral outcomes.
“Florida  is  the  epicenter  of  the  premium  cigar  industry,” he wrote, noting that Florida has 29 electoral votes. “There  are  over  fifty corporate headquarters locations spanning from Fort Lauderdale,  to Miami, and up to Tampa. Every premium cigar that enters the United States from Latin America enters through the Port of Miami, and the Ports of Tampa and Fort Lauderdale also represent critical pieces of infrastructure for the industry. The headquarters and logistics channels that include trucking, warehouse and distribution firms are foundations of the regional economy in Miami-Dade County, and along the I-95 corridor up  to  Fort  Lauderdale.”
