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Home » 'No plans, nothing': Florida Democrats desperate for the future
'No plans, nothing': Florida Democrats desperate for the future
By paydayloansallonline_110na0 January 22, 2023 No Comments9 Mins Read
According to interviews with a dozen organizers, former congressmen, donors and other leaders, Democrats in Florida, more than two months after enduring a humble mid-term defeat, now have a clear leader, There is no consensus for infrastructure or reconstruction, and it is in chaos.
These factors have fueled concerns about Democrats outside of Florida, ignoring the US's third most populous state, once considered a marquee battlefield. Democrats have struggled in recent elections, hitting a new low last fall when Republican Governor Ron DeSantis won by nearly 20 points in his second term to take control of majority Hispanic Miami-Dade County. . . Republicans also secured an overwhelming majority in the state legislature.
Now, as Democrats look to 2024, there's little early indication that Florida will be President Biden's top priority. Biden advisers, who spoke on condition of anonymity to explain the strategy, said decisions about whether the re-election campaign would invest in Florida would be based in part on Republican candidates. thinks DeSantis has little hope of challenging Florida's 30 electoral votes in 2024 (with only Texas and California allotted more) if nominated, but Donald If former President Trump wins Republican support, he has a greater opportunity.
"The thing about Florida Democrats is that we continue to learn with each passing year that when we think we've hit rock bottom, we find the new abyss going deeper and deeper. "No plans. Nothing. It's just a state of suspended animation and chaos, and above all, sad regret and acceptance that Florida has been abandoned for the long and foreseeable future."
For many Florida Democrats, it is unclear whether they will be able to put up a competitive U.S. Senate candidate next year for the seat currently held by Senator Rick Scott (Republican). The last time they won a state Senate election was in 2012. There are currently no Democratic statewide officials.
Even more pressing is the question of who will lead the national party after Chairman Manny Diaz's recent resignation. said it had no intention of choosing a new chair yet.
John Morgan, a major donor to the Democratic Party and a central Florida trial attorney, lamented the lack of benches for Democratic candidates, saying: There are really no Democrats," he said.
One silver lining for Democrats is the victory of Congressman Maxwell Frost in 2022. He gained national attention for becoming the first his Generation Z congressman. Overall, though, it can be pointed out that the Democrats have few prospective candidates in future elections.
Democrats across the state are more concerned about candidates than about how the party will create year-round activities that register voters and help voters regain relevance to Floridians. , said there is no unified plan. Many are calling for more investment from donors, a stronger field his program, a more aggressive response to the Republican message.
The National Democratic Party believes that in the 2022 midterm elections, the Florida gubernatorial election cannot become a priority for the Democratic Governors Association, and that the Senate election will receive a lot of attention from the Democratic Senate Election Commission and its affiliated outside groups. Most surpassed Florida because they could not. The DNC has also removed the state from his 2024 battleground states list to receive additional investment for 2022. Some of the larger Democratic-leaning donations flowed into the state through other outside groups, including nonprofits focused on voter registration, but the donors were not disclosed. .
DNC said it has already invested in Florida in early 2024. In November the DNC announced it would hire a full-time press staff in the state. But this he objected to the DNC giving Florida additional midterm election resources that other states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were providing to prepare for the upcoming presidential election. It was later.
"Last cycle, the DNC doubled down on its 50-state strategy in a historic medium-term investment, and we remain firmly committed to that approach, including Florida," DNC Chairman Jamie Harrison said in a statement. I was. "We are already laying the groundwork for additional resources for 2024."
Florida, which voted for Barack Obama twice and had close gubernatorial and Senate elections in 2018, In many respects, it lagged other more competitive states such as Georgia and Arizona. In recent elections, demographic shifts and political trends have created favorable conditions for political parties. Some warned that in the long run it would be unwise to set Florida aside.
"When I think of Florida, I think of Monty Python's 'Dead, Not Dead' skit. Given the well-matched population, Democrats can't afford to fill it, the Florida Democratic Party said in a statement.
As they grapple with their political future, Democrats are also factoring in the policy costs their losses have caused.DeSantis has made Florida a laboratory for conservative policy. This has been praised and adopted by Republicans elsewhere in the country, including banning certain textbooks in schools and banning transgender minors from undergoing certain medical procedures. . He has positioned him as the frontrunner for his 2024 presidential nomination, with polls showing a majority of voters in the state backing his response to the pandemic and other challenges facing Florida residents. is shown to exist.
Former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (Democrat) said the lack of investment from Democratic donors would help pave the way for DeSantis to gain national prominence, giving him a "clear path to claim himself." I gave it to him. Mucarsel-Powell predicted a long road to recovery for the Democratic Party.
The Republican victory also came as the state's voters became younger and more diverse in recent elections — a trend Democrats have long felt to be on their side. They overtook the Democrats in voter registration in 2018, but that number only widened in the lead-up to the midterm elections. He has more than 5.3 million registered Republicans and her just under 5 million registered Democrats in the state, according to state statistics. Also, in the months following the election, pollsters and operatives found voter turnout among Democrats in the state declining.
Christian Ziegler, vice chairman of the Florida Republican Party, touted DeSantis' victory as a result of his willingness to tackle difficult problems and being a "relentless fighter" to bring victory to the people of Florida. Under Governor DeSantis, freedom has overtaken sunshine as the number one driver of tourism and migration," Ziegler said.
In resignation letter, former Miami mayor Diaz blamed 2022 loss Lack of funds, volunteers, effective messaging or programming to engage with voters. He said the party has a "longstanding, systematic and deeply entrenched culture that resists change".
"If they continue to rely on voter registration to boost voter turnout, build field operations related only to elections, and expect to win votes without involving voters where they live, they will be able to You can't win," Diaz wrote in a letter of over 2,300 words.
Diaz did not respond to a request for comment.
Diaz's resignation comes amid growing calls to resign with two years remaining in office. Even before the 2022 loss, some Florida Democrats had already issued warnings that Diaz was not an effective party leader. He said he would not listen to the government and failed to fulfill his promise to establish a national political party.
a few Democrats Among them are former state senator Annette Tadeo and Alex Berrios, co-founder of Mi Vecino, a year-round voter registration group in Florida. But conversations with a dozen Democratic operatives and leaders indicate that there is no clear successor. Florida Democrats did not respond to requests for comment.
Some Democrats expressed optimism that Diaz's resignation could present new opportunities for the party.
"Many of the party's leaders and activists have called for much-needed self-reflection. Now that Manny Diaz has stepped down, Democrats are forced to hold tough debates about what it takes to rebuild the party. I think." Juan Cuba, former chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
In Miami-Dade, the state's most populous county, where Hispanics make up nearly 60% of the electorate, Democrats face a lack of funding, strong messaging and organizing to reach communities, and a formidable candidate. Blame their loss for few things. Republicans, meanwhile, continued aggressive ground operations in the county throughout the year, with the goal of building Trump's interests with Hispanic voters in 2020.
Republicans gained Hispanics statewide due to the overperformance of conservative Cuban-Americans and the growing presence of Puerto Ricans, Colombians, and Venezuelans in the state. Thing. and other Hispanic populations. Republicans in recent years have actively tried to associate the Democrats with the party's left, branding them "socialists" while rejecting their label and philosophies. He argued that Republicans profited from supporting Hispanics in Florida not so much because Hispanic policies resonated, but because Democrats didn't show up to counter the Republican message. there is
Regardless of who heads the party, there is widespread agreement that rebuilding efforts require the buy-in of many people and organizations.
State Rep. Anna Escamani, Democrat, says the party needs to "get back to basics" and build activism on the ground by getting more people knocking on doors and trying to engage communities across the state I said we need to focus on doing. She lamented that the party lacked strong power. She ended up starting her own voter registration and engagement operations.
"We are at rock bottom," she said. "It doesn't have to be this big sexy show. It just has to be the program. Nothing happens overnight, or she one election cycle, but start building it now." need to do it."
Vanessa Rollon, a Democratic operative who worked for the Florida Democratic Party on a program aimed at supporting local government candidates, said party issues take voters and donors for granted. 10 years ago, Rollon recalled visiting a field office in Hialeah, a Cuban-American city in South Florida, and receiving a package to knock on the door of that community. .
"Fast forward to today and it doesn't exist," she said. "This embodies what went wrong, where it went, Republicans building these offices everywhere. They've been organizing, but we has retreated."
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