Dear Democrats,
Today FDP launched a new website! This project was a long time in the making, and the faster, more secure, and more reliable experience will be more critical to our efforts now as we campaign during the age of COVID-19. See more details below.
During last week's Republican National Convention, we never heard about the issues most relevant to Floridians, including expanding our health care, protecting Social Security, combating climate change, and overcoming the pandemic that has claimed 183,000 lives across our country -- including over 11,000 deaths in Florida -- and has cost over one million Americans their jobs in the last week alone.
There are only 64 days (2 months and 3 days) for us to do all we can to send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House and to elect every member of our Sunshine Slate!
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Terrie Rizzo
Chair
Florida Democratic Party
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Down Ballot Days of Action |
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On Saturday, September 5th the FDP Down Ballot Elections team is holding a Day of Action centered around Voter Education. We will kick off the day at 2pm ET with a Voter Education Virtual Event with special guest Rep. Joe Geller will share useful information about Voting by Mail in Florida this election cycle.
Afterward, campaigns and volunteers will call Democrats newly enrolled in Vote By Mail and educate these voters about Voting by Mail in Florida this election cycle. This will be an opportunity for Down Ballot Campaigns to identify supportive voters in November, and volunteers will learn about how they can get involved in GOTV efforts with our Sunshine Slate of candidates. Sign up below for our Down Ballot DOA!
September 5th @ 2pm ET
Our next Day of Action will take place on Saturday, September 26th starting at 2pm ET and Down Ballot Campaigns will be calling voters with a Vote by Mail Ballot to ask them for their vote! Sign up here for the Vote by Mail GOTV Day of Action on September 26th.
September 26th @ 2pm ET
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Following the August Primary Election, we are excited to release our FDP Sunshine Slate with over 400 Democrats running for state and local offices across Florida! FDP's Senior Advisor for Down Ballot Elections Rosy Gonzalez Speers said, these candidates "will build long-term power for Florida Democrats and help flip this state blue. All politics is local, and our candidates and our investments will put an end to out-of-touch Republican leadership — and replace it with elected leaders who will stand up for Florida families and core Democratic values of equality, the environment, affordable healthcare, and an economy that works for every single one of us."
To introduce voters to the new Sunshine Slate, we are launching a weekly "Meet the Candidates" Facebook Live series starting Thursday, September 10 at 6:30 p.m. ET, where voters can get to know the Democratic candidates running for office throughout Florida.
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Primary Turnout & Vote By Mail |
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During our August 18 Primary, we saw significant increases in turnout for Democrats across the board. Florida Democrats increased Early Vote and Vote-by-Mail (VBM) turnout by 730,000 ballots over 2016! Statewide, Democrats cast 1.2 million VBM ballots - roughly 400,000 more than Republicans, a completely unprecedented margin. In short, we raised our VBM turnout 43% over 2018, while the GOP raised theirs just 10%.
In VBM returns, we led in every Demographic and age group, including white voters and voters aged 65+. Also, black voters returned ballots at a higher rate than white voters - another first and a testament to our minority outreach programs.
This is a massive increase and evidence of the early organizing and infrastructure FDP has been building since 2017, and is also indicative of Democratic enthusiasm for our candidates up and down the ballot. We know when people vote by mail, they are also significantly more likely to vote down ballot.
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As of August 31, 2,146,601 Florida Democrats have requested VBM ballots for the General Election, compared to 1,454,375 Republicans, giving us a 692,226 VBM enrollment lead.
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Today FDP launched its new website that will serve as a critical organizing tool for Democrats in all 67 counties ahead of the 2020 elections. The new website is more user-friendly to help serve the average Floridian, offering new voter education tools, and the ability to register to vote and enroll in vote-by-mail without leaving the website. It also continues to be a meaningful resource to Democratic voters, organizers, and candidates. |
New features on the website include:
- Real-time map of every Democratic grassroots organizing event across Florida
- Voter registration, vote-by-mail ballot request, and ballot recommendation tools for voters based on address
- Voter assistance resources and access to 24/7 phone line to get in touch with the Florida Democratic Party Voter Protection Team
- Candidate toolbox including a campaign plan generator and resources for current and prospective Democratic candidates
- Extensive list of active phone banks for grassroots organizers to jump in and easily get involved
- Online learning system with a catalog of recorded webinars and workshops to train the next generation of grassroots organizers
- Sleek new design that captures the Florida Democratic Party brand
- Entirely responsive user experience so that every page is ready for smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers.
- Accessibility-conscious styling with powerful enhancement tools for persons with visual impairment, color blindness, and dyslexia
- Showcase of all Democratic Congressional and State elected officials, county Democratic parties, and statewide Democratic caucuses with links to their social media pages so visitors can stay connected and get involved
- Resume bank to house resumes for campaigns of homegrown Florida talent
- Every page fully translated into Spanish and Haitian Creole
- Automatic recognition of users visiting FloridaDems.org from outside of the United States to provide Democrats abroad with the resources they need
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FDP is beginning the migration process to move data back to county DEC committees. Currently in Our Florida Committee My Voters there are 79,083 Biden IDs collected and 414,069 negative canvass status results. In Our Florida My Campaign are 33,047 total people, 30,609 total people with phone or email, 27,257 total people with phones, 14,465 total people with emails, 8,997 total people have completed or walked in for a shift, 24,940 total people with a My Voters Van ID.
The data team will pull data out of the Our Florida 2020 committee using national data best practices. They will migrate:
- Biden 2020 candidates IDs from My Voters
- Negative canvass results from My Voters
- Volunteers from My Campaign
- Potential volunteers from My Campaign
- Relevant notes from both My Campaign and My Voters
- Parse out which data belongs to which county using the event location and address location information available.
- Push all relevant data to the committees using BigQuery saved list functions and then applying Activist Codes in VAN
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We host virtual fundraisers each week to benefit one of our critical programs. Below are details of our upcoming events. We hope you'll plan to join us and spread the word. |
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Wednesday, September 2, 6 p.m. ET: FDP Virtual Fundraiser for Vote-by-Mail
Guest speakers: Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and FDP Chairwoman Terrie Rizzo. >> Click Here to RSVP
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Thursday, September 3, 5:30 p.m. ET: Two Months Out Virtual Fundraiser
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Wednesday, September 9, 7 p.m. ET: FDP Virtual Fundraiser for Vote-by-Mail
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Thursday, September 10, 6 p.m. ET: FDP Virtual Fundraiser for Vote-by-Mail
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Register for FDP's upcoming trainings here:
The DNC Disability Council invites all Democrats including volunteers, campaign staff, and allies to join us for a disability-vote grassroots mobilization training to learn about campaign accessibility. Experienced activists will share what you need to know about disability voter accessibility for registering to vote, voter protection and virtual campaigning.
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Democratic National Convention - Florida Highlights |
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Last week we highlighted many Floridians featured throughout the Democratic National Convention. Here's a few more:
FDP First Vice Chair Judy Mount introduced Valerie Biden Owens during Monday's Florida Delegation Breakfast.
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- Florida At-Large Delegate former US Ambassador Amy Bondurant and her husband David Dunn were shown as virtual audience members paying respect during the George Floyd moment of silence Monday evening and also among the virtual audience participants on both Tuesday night and again after Biden's acceptance speech on Thursday.
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On Monday, our 18-yr-old CD 23 delegate, Joseph Mullen, spoke about the need to support the Black Lives Matter movement. |
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- CD 23 delegate Joseph Mullen also spoke alongside his brothers, Oliver and Riordan, about school lockdowns and active shooter drills as part of the segment on gun violence Wednesday evening.
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