Democrats' #1 Question Leading Up to the Election: Is Florida In Play?

Democrats' #1 Question Leading Up to the Election: Is Florida In Play?

Liv Caputo
Liv Caputo
|
September 25, 2024

By pointing to Republican fear, volunteer numbers, and call volumes, Florida Democrats are swearing that even though the Sunshine State has experienced a massive year-over-year Republican shift in voter registration, the state is "in play" for them in November.

While the state Democrats have long maintained the "in play" mantra, momentum from their two controversial citizen-led amendments, a symbolic victory over Gov. Ron DeSantis in school board races statewide, and an uptick in volunteers after Vice President Kamala Harris became the party nominee has caused them to assert that if Florida wasn't "in play" before, it is now.

“We are not going to disappoint in November,” party Chairwoman Nikki Fried said at the Miami-Dade "Blue Gala" event Saturday night. “Republicans are scared that they are going to lose our state. Miami-Dade will deliver for Florida and the entire country.”

"We kicked Ron DeSantis' ass," she later added, taunting the Governor for most of his endorsed school board candidates losing in the Aug. primaries.

State Sen. Shevrin Jones, a leading South Florida Democrat who organized the weekend event, echoed her comments to The Floridian, pointing out that one week after the Democratic National Convention, Florida Democrats added more than 13,000 new volunteers and over the course of a year, had made over 2.1 million calls.

"We made it very clear that Florida is in play, and a lot of that has to do with momentum from the Harris-Walz campaign, and a lot of it has to do with the momentum that Nikki Fried has built here within the state of Florida," he said.

The issue? Money.

Between Aug. 1 and Aug. 14, the Florida Democratic Party raised $216,000. In the same period, the Republican Party of Florida raked in over $2.6 million. Though that can partly be attributed to the over one million more registered Republicans than Democrats, that brings up Democrats' other problem: there are almost 1.1 million more registered Republicans than Democrats.

That figure alone may explain why the Harris campaign has been reluctant to spend money in Florida. Though Harris and national Democrats dwarfed former President Donald Trump and the Republicans in August fundraising (she raised three times more than he did), that money hasn't translated over to Florida—nor has she visited the Sunshine State since becoming the party nominee.

According to the Federal Election Committee, the Harris for President PAC has not donated to the Florida Democratic Executive Committee. The Democratic National Committee, however, transferred just over $460,000 to Florida Democrats in July, though there's been no record of donations through August.

“The Democrats can say whatever they want, but here are the facts: Florida Republicans have out-registered, out-raised, and out-worked the Florida Democrats. Anyone telling you Florida is in play for Democrats should not be taken seriously,” Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power told The Floridian, slamming Fried and the Democrats.

“I’ve heard this before once from Nikki Fried when she said Charlie Crist was scared of her," he added, jabbing at her loss in 2022 to former Gov. Charlie Crist for the gubernatorial nomination.

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Liv Caputo

Liv Caputo

Livia Caputo is a senior at Florida State University, working on a major in Criminology, and a triple minor in Psychology, Communications, and German. She has been working on a journalism career for the past year, and hopes to become a successful reporter after graduation. Her work has been cited in Fox News, the New York Post, and the Daily Mail

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