Florida Democrats' recent change of leadership has focused more on trying to reverse Governor Ron DeSantis' legislative agenda on the state of Florida and turn the state back to its once purple status. Now, the Florida Democratic Party is spending $1 million on voter registrations in a targeted effort to take back Florida.
As a part of their #TakeBackFL statewide tour, the party plans to work grassroots style and fight the Florida Republican party on the battlefield of voter registration. Florida Republicans made history this past year after not only evening the score with Democrats in terms of Florida voter registration but flipped the script on the Democrats with now half a million more registered voters.
The effort will focus on 18 specific counties across Florida including Broward, Collier, Duval, Escambia, Gilchrist, Hernando, Hillsborough, Jefferson, Lee, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Santa Rosa, Seminole, St. Lucie, and Volusia counties.
While Miami-Dade is historically a rather dependable stronghold for Democrats, the 2022 election taught Democrats that nothing is a sure thing. Governor DeSantis (R-FL) carried the county with 55.3% of the vote, an unheard-of feat for a Republican in recent Florida electoral history.
Chair of the Florida Democrat party Nikki Fried (D-FL) issued a statement on the tour to change Florida's voter makeup, "We are going to take back Florida by showing up in every corner and building a grassroots coalition that is going to mobilize voters, re-enroll Floridians back to vote-by-mail, and organize the people in their community."
Chair Fried also had select comments for Governor DeSantis who is largely responsible for the large chasm between Republicans and Democrats in party registration, "This tour is about firing up Floridians and empowering them with the tools and training to help take back our state. Unlike Ron DeSantis, we are actually here - working on the ground and talking to voters about the issues they really care about."
