US Open champ Coco Gauff urges young Americans to vote
ROME (AP) — She’s the U.S. Open champion. The highest paid female athlete in the world. And a frustrated Floridian.
American tennis player Coco Gauff has never been afraid to use her voice.
Not when she delivered an impromptu speech at a Black Lives Matter rally at the age of 16. And not now at age 20 when she’s preparing to vote for the first time in a U.S. presidential election later this year.
Gauff, who will be among the favorites when the French Open starts on Sunday in Paris, addressed the current political climate in her home state during a recent interview with The Associated Press.
She noted that it’s “a crazy time to be a Floridian, especially a Black one at that.”
“We aren’t happy with the current state of our government in Florida, especially everything with the books and just the way our office operates,” Gauff said, referring to a two-year-long controversy over banning books from the state’s schools that started with a bill signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.