MIAMI — Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez’s father, who arrived in Florida as a Cuban exile after the 1959 revolution, has passed away of brain cancer at 84.
Nuñez says Victor C. Sanchez had been diagnosed with the illness earlier this year and died Thursday after a fainting episode.
"Earlier today, my Father went home to be with the Lord," Nuñez wrote on Twitter Thursday. "The last few months have been very difficult, but I am so thankful for all the love and prayers we have received from our family and friends. He was truly a special man and an even more amazing father."
The Republican lieutenant governor told The Associated Press that Sanchez left Havana in 1961 after learning he could face house arrest for having views that opposed the nation’s leader Fidel Castro.
After serving as a Florida representative, Nuñez became Florida’s first Latina lieutenant governor last year.
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