How Big An Issue Is Climate Change? Just Ask Candidates In Florida

A lot went into Markey's big win over Kennedy in Massachusetts Tuesday but Climate Change and the Green New Deal-- co-authored by Markey and passively supported by Kennedy-- was probably the single biggest factor. Perhaps, come November, it will be as big a factor is one of the most Climate-threatened states, Florida. The Environmental Defense Fund spent $1.7 million on the ad above, running it for a week in the Tampa Bay area, where there are a number of red hot races, from President to state legislature.

Kelly Hayes, writing for FloridaPolitics.com, reported that a new poll showed a 7-point swing in favor of Biden in the Tampa media market after a week of TV play. The Tampa media market, Florida's second largest, includes Hillsborough, Pinellas, Citrus, Pasco, Hernando, Manatee, Sarasota and Polk counties

Before the ad campaign, polling from AGL Research had shown President Donald Trump leading in the critical market. That poll, released July 6, showed a competitive margin between the two candidates-- at the time, Biden trailed by just 3 points in the Tampa market. However, the July poll showed Biden with a 15-point lead in Hillsborough County. Biden also held a 5-point lead in Pinellas County.

After the run of the ad, which criticizes Trump’s leadership on environmental issues and his declarations that climate change is “a hoax,” Trump now trails Biden by 4 points in the Tampa market, according to polling released last Wednesday.

“Florida is the most valuable swing state and the Tampa area is an essential piece of the electoral puzzle,” Vice President of ALG Research Kevin Atkins said in a news release. “Tampa area voters have felt the impacts of sea-level rise, stronger storms, and issues like Red Tide. It’s no surprise these voters are souring on a President who calls climate change a hoax.”

Trump won this market by roughly 8.5 points in 2016, according to the memo, although Hillary Clinton took Hillsborough County.

In the poll completed after the ad aired, the number of voters who are worried about climate change-- and voters do not approve of Trump’s handling of the issue-- increased. Nearly two-thirds of voters in the Tampa media market report being worried about climate change in the most recent poll, a plus-10 increase since mid-May, according to the Aug. 26 polling memo.

Additionally, 56% of voters gave Trump a negative rating on his performance in regard to environmental issues. About 40% of voters gave a positive rating.

Overall, across the Tampa Media Market, Trump’s favorability has dropped 10 points-- the President is now losing against Biden 45-49 in this area, a 7-point shift since having a 3-point lead in May, according to the memo.

Climate messages resonate with voters in the Tampa media market, according to EDF. Florida is still a dominant swing state, and recent polling shows Biden leading statewide.

Dr. Janelle Christensen is chair of the Florida Democratic Environmental Caucus and she and her team are responsible for recruiting and supporting more than two dozen environmental activists to run for state legislative seats that the Florida Democratic Party has been willing to cede to the GOP without a fight. She told me that most of the candidates her group recruited are now co-creators and signatories on the Florida Climate and Economic Defense Initiative. Overall 1/3 of the state legislative candidates have signed on Initiative. She also pointed out that "The younger candidates took the lead: Rock Aboujaoude, Anslem Weber, Heather Hunter, Rachel Brown, Katheryn Norman... The environment is an issue that Florida voters of all parties care about. Some are just more willing to be tricked into believing Republicans will actually do something for the environment, even though they have done nothing but hurt it for the past 20 years. When one looks at the legislation and the votes, it is clear only Democrats are willing to take action on ensure that the environment, economy and our health are cared for in a responsible way."

Many of the Florida Democratic candidates running for office up and down the ballot this year have told me the single biggest motivator for them jumping into electoral politics was the Climate Crisis. I asked several candidates who have seen the ad to tell me how voters in their districts are reacting to Climate as an issue. From the very first time I spoke with Katherine Norman, the progressive state Senate candidate going up against Joe Gruters, one of the state's most powerful Republican Climate deniers, she wanted to discuss the overwhelming urgency of dealing with Climate change. Again, yesterday, she told me that "We are seeing unprecedented momentum because we have decided to contest previously uncontested districts, so we can expect everything to be groundbreaking. We are building infrastructure for decades because our citizens are begging for the truth. It is unprecedented for America to deal with a leader with 70% fake followers and who regular lies with impunity on National TV. His supporters are also forced to spout straight lies to support the president against science, morality, and national interest."

Norman has tied the contrast between Gruters and herself on Climate to other salient issues for her districts voters as well, "My opponent," she told me, "seconded the president’s nomination at the RNC, in his speech he called the virus the ‘Wuhan Virus’-- this kind of rhetoric is not just some slight to China, this is a dangerous and deliberate attempt to frame the coronavirus as some absurd extension of the presidents ongoing mismanagement of our relationship with China. It is an elected leader attempting to blame the deaths of Americans at the hands of this administration on another country, and fuel the xenophobia that energizes his base. The GOP has demonstrated countless times that they will lie to the American people and every day we have more and more Republicans speak out against the egregious deterioration of our democracy at the hands of this administration. Here in Florida candidates like myself are incredibly proud to be offering a compassionate, transparent alternative for voters this year."

Bob Lynch is the Democratic candidate in a Miami-Dade swing district the Democratic Party prefers not to run in. Lynch is making them uncomfortable, something he doesn't shy away from. "In my district in particular," he told me, "which is 90% Hispanic, Climate Change and protecting the environment is an incredibly important issue. Around 75% of Latino voters, nationwide, support efforts to address climate change. A lot of Miami-Dade County’s immigrant population came from countries that have experience major problems due to climate change, others are in fact climate refugees. Our state, and county in particular are heavily reliant on our tourism industry. The Covid-19 should be a wake up call for us as to what the perils of not addressing climate change are. The pandemic has led to a 60% reduction in tourism in Florida. Imagine what will happen if we continue to see sea level rise that floods our cities even on sunny days? We have a massive fish kill in Biscayne Bay. Our beaches often are closed due to fecal matter in our ocean. We need to upgrade our old septic systems to sewer lines before they poison our ground water. If DeSantis and Trump allow offshore drilling and we wind up with an oil spill? It will cripple our tourism/hospitality industry even worse than Covid has. People are starting to wake up, but the Republicans refuse to even mention climate change, let alone address it. They continue to offer corporate tax breaks in exchange for lining their pockets to companies that pollute all of our waters. It is sickening."

The Sheer Incompetence Of The Florida Democratic Party Could Sentence All Of Us To 4 More Years Of Trump

On Friday, the Tampa Bay Times published another stinging indictment of the venal and incompetent Florida Democratic Party in the form of a question from top state Senate candidate Kathy Lewis: I can lift Biden and flip state Senate. Why won’t my party help?.

Kathy (who has been endorsed by Blue America) is running for an open seat to represent parts of 3 counties Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk. The Hillsborough part of the county has already turned blue and Hillary beat Trump there 50.4% to 46.0%. And Polk County is trending blue. Trump won the whole district 115,750 (52.3%) to 97,399 (44.0%). In 2018, running against incumbent Tom Lee, Kathy garnered 46.5% of the vote, significantly better than Hillary did there. But the Democrats decided to take this open swing seat off the table and allow the GOP to win it without a fight. That, in a nut shell is the Florida Democratic Party. Republicans outnumber Democrats among registered voters, but it is independents who will decide this race-- and independents are not happy with Republicans in Florida.

The district is suffering under Republican mishandling of the pandemic. Hillsborough County is the 4th worst-hit on the state with 210 new cases yesterday for a total of 36,784 (more cases than either Ireland or Austria). Polk County is is the 9th worst county in the state (111 new cases yesterday, for a total of 16,803) and Pasco had 40 new cases yesterday and now has a total of 7,989 cases, 16th worst. The 3 counties have over 1,000 deaths. Many people blame Trump, his puppet governor DeSantis and DeSantis' puppet state legislature. Without the Florida Democratic Party, this would be a very good year for smart Democrats like Kathy Lewis, who has a lot of what she didn't have last time she ran: name recognition.

Kathy told the reporter that she feels the state Democratic Party could be doing more to support her. "Her logic is simple: she’s a Black woman running in the Interstate-4 corridor of the country’s largest swing state. She represents a crucial Democratic constituency in a crucial part of the national electoral map. 'If we drive our race, we drive Biden,' Lewis said. 'Not helping us to the fullest extent potentially hurts Biden.' One of the state’s legislative bodies also hangs in the balance. Republicans currently hold a 23-to-17 advantage in the Senate. If Democrats flip three seats, the party could share power with Republicans in the chamber. For the first time in decades, Democrats could help set the legislative agenda in Tallahassee."

After the Florida Democratic Party failed in their efforts to recruit Alex Sink, they wrote the crucial district off entirely, even though Kathy is an extremely attractive candidate. The Florida Republican Party has given Kathy's opponent $9,500. The Florida Democratic Party has give Kathy ZERO. You can contribute to Kathy's race by clicking on the 2020 Florida state thermometer on the right.

"(Burgess) has the full force of the party on his side," Lewis told the Times/Herald. "There’s clearly a complete difference on the Democrat side, for whatever their reasons are."

This year, the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has raised over $7.1 million. The Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has pulled in just a fraction of that: $1.9 million or so.

...Spending heavily in a relative long shot district may not be sound strategy. But all summer, Democrats have said their recruiting efforts across the state will help Joe Biden turn the state blue in November.

"Politics is driven from the bottom up," Terrie Rizzo, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, said in June. "Having a local candidate running talking about local issues, talking about how the issues affect local issues, helps drives turnout."

Democrats are running in 140 of 141 legislative races this cycle, with a 141st candidate fighting in court to get on the ballot.

Rizzo is parroting phrases she's been beaten over the head with. She and her deputy, Juan Peñalosa, have fought the theory she's "espousing" and the recruitment of candidates by the Environmental Caucus and 90 For 90. They didn't hep in recruitment and were largely negative and now they are trying to strangle those candidates in the crib, denying them access not just to party funds but to their district voter files. Both Rizzo and Peñalosa are rumored to be close to being fired, but by then it will be too late for many of the candidates whose campaigns they are sabotaging. If the Florida GOP decided who would run the Florida Democratic Party, they could never find anyone's "good" as Rizzo and Peñalosa.

Lewis said the party should follow its own logic: If Democrats want to help Biden, they should help her.

"I don’t think about winning or losing, I think about telling the story and carving the way in the forest," Lewis said. "I’m trying to over-perform so that Biden can get there."

Fergie Reid, Jr. said his progressive activism organization, 90for90.org, helped recruit dozens of candidates this election cycle in Florida state House and Senate races. To Reid, Senate District 20 is an example of how the party’s recruitment efforts could go to waste if the candidates aren’t supported.

And the activist said in 2020, with systemic racism at the front of many voters’ minds, it’s incumbent on Democrats to invest in Black women.

"They’re not investing in Senate 20 the way they’re investing in Senate 9 and 39," Reid said. "That may or may not have something to do with the candidate being Kathy Lewis. I think it does, and I don’t think it’s a good look for the party."

Is The Anti-Trump/Anti-Red Wave Going To Help Democrats At The State Legislative Level?

My guess is yes-- this November we're going to see a lot of the seats that were lost while Debbie Wasserman Schultz incompetently ran the DNC picked back up by Democrats again. And, as Joan Walsh explained this week for The Nation that process is already underway. During the Wasserman Schultz years Democrats lost 942 legislative seats. "In 2009," wrote Walsh, "Democrats controlled 27 state legislative assemblies and Republicans 14, with eight divided. (Nebraska’s unicameral legislature is nonpartisan.) By 2017, Republicans controlled 32 and Democrats 14, with three divided. In 2010 Republicans were able to use this dominance to gerrymander electoral maps across the country, locking themselves into power in state after state, including in an inordinate number of congressional districts in states like Michigan, Ohio, Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Walsh explained that by 2017 Trump's toxicity started impacting election results "as Democrats won back 14 state seats in special elections, plus an astonishing 15 in Virginia that November." And in 2018 Democrats "turned 380 seats from red to blue... flipping chambers in six states. In Colorado, New York, and Maine, Democrats took over Senate chambers. In Minnesota they grabbed the House, and in New Hampshire they turned both. They made huge strides elsewhere in eroding GOP power, switching 16 seats in North Carolina’s House and Senate, ending GOP supermajorities (which gave the legislature power to override the Democratic governor’s vetoes); 14 in Texas; and 19 in Pennsylvania. In 2019, Virginia Democrats finished their job, taking the House and the Senate. With a Democratic governor, the state returned to full Democratic control for the first time in over two decades. Counting those Virginia victories, Democrats have won back over 450 seats and 10 state chambers in the Trump era."

Anselm Weber, a progressive state House candidate for an open seat in southwest Florida told us that his race is important for a multitude of reasons. "In terms of my District," he said, "we have intense clean water issues as we are at the frontline of massive blue algae blooms caused by nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from commercial farms. My opponent Adam Botana is heavily funded by big Agricultural companies that directly contribute to our blue algae blooms. Moreover for the state of Florida we have massive poverty and healthcare uninsured rates along with immense housing insecurities. These issues have only gotten worse with COVID as thousands of Floridians have lost their job based health insurance and a whopping 51% of Florida renters are at risk for eviction. This means we need state legislators who will fight tooth and nail for a Green Jobs Program to combat climate change while providing well paying jobs across the state. along with fighting for living wages for all, universal healthcare, and an expansion of affordable and public housing."

Heidi Campbell, one of the Nashville area mayors, is running for the last state legislative seat in greater Nashville still held by a Republican. And she's going to win it. "Every now and then," she told me this morning, "I'll talk to a Democratic voter who asks me why I'm bothering to run for state Senate. Progressives have mostly given up on Republican super-majority states like Tennessee because flipping seats is a daunting prospect. There's also a tendency to focus on the shiny televised, twitter-fied federal races, and of course we've had four solid years of a President who takes up all the oxygen in the room. As a Mayor of a small city though, I can tell you that all politics really and truly IS local. Republicans are counting on states like Tennessee to seed battles to overturn Roe v. Wade and roll back environmental regulations. We need progressive candidates in these states who can win seats and fight to flip other seats. And we also need to elect people like me to run interference on the antediluvian legislation that the conservatives write, like bills to jail librarians, honor Rush Limbaugh, and the dangerous push for permitless carry. Geographically and legislatively our states ARE united, and we have to pay attention to state races before it's too late."

Drew Phelps is the progressive Democrat working towards replacing right-wing extremist Devon Mathis in a Central Valley Assembly seat. Today he told me that "The race in AD 26 is vital because the people in this district have been ignored by Sacramento for too long. One more Democrat in the California Assembly may not seem like a big deal, but for the approximately 465,000 people in AD 26 so much more is possible with a Democratic member who represents their interests. This election is a choice between a public servant who would put the needs of the district above partisan politics and special interests on one side, and someone like Devon Mathis who accomplishes nothing, harasses his own staff, and continually puts the interests of his large donors above the average working person in the district. Assembly District 26 has been ignored and left behind for too long and Sacramento needs to prioritize the needs of the people in the district so that they no longer lag behind the rest of California. Electing Drew Phelps would give the people of the district a champion who would put their needs above all else and allow them to finally get their fair share from Sacramento."

Joshua Hicks is running for a state House seat that takes in all of Nassau County and part of Duval County. "Here in Northeast Florida," he told us this morning, "we are running a campaign in District 11 to place the people back in charge in Tallahassee. This race is vitally important because it allows us the real opportunity to hold my Republican opponent accountable for his dismal failures, while also preventing him from spending his resources on his friends both locally and across the state. It's important because as Democrats, we need to ensure we have a candidate in every race because we can't win if we don't run. It's also important because we can move real numbers in my district and in districts across the country, that will help Democrats win up and down the ballot and ride the anti-Trump wave to victory. Here in District 11, we haven't had a Democratic state House campaign like mine in the past 10 years. We are putting in the resources to turn this district blue, and we are reaching out to NPAs and Republicans to convince them to reject the hate coming from Donald Trump and embrace focusing on the kitchen table issues impacting all our families. Issues like higher wages, better healthcare, acting on climate and a renewed focus on lifting up our local economy. These are the issues that matter and we are seeing real movement away from the politics of hate in Northeast Florida."

Please consider contributing to the progressive legislative candidates endorsed by Blue America-- in Florida, Tennessee, California and across the country-- by clicking on the ActBlue thermometer above.

Now those groups and some new ones are trying to change more chambers to blue, especially in states where the legislature controls redistricting. But they need to learn the lessons of why state Democrats slumped after 2008, failing to rise to the GOP challenge, and surged after 2016.

Chief among them: You can’t win if you don’t play.

Democrats in many states had long failed even to field challengers to many Republican incumbents. That’s changed hugely since 2016. In this cycle, the DLCC has spent $6.2 million to recruit candidates. Democrats also need a diverse slate of challengers, especially to turn out the people least likely to vote but most likely to be Democrats: so-called low-propensity voters, mainly people of color and younger people (who obviously overlap). Then Democrats need to target those voters, as well as run on issues and urgency that match the moment.

...[T]he four states that are seeing the most investment are North Carolina, where there’s a chance to shift the House and Senate; Arizona, where both chambers are likewise in play; and Texas and Michigan, whose Houses may be up for grabs. Fights are also underway to turn the Minnesota Senate, the Iowa and Ohio Houses, and both Pennsylvania chambers. Wisconsin and Georgia are getting attention, too.

And with a late, unexpected surge of first-time candidates, Florida has emerged as a fascinating laboratory for building Democratic infrastructure on the ground. Republicans hold a trifecta in state power-- hapless Governor Ron DeSantis as well as both legislative houses-- and they have botched the pandemic response beyond belief. Groups like Sister District, Forward Majority, and the DLCC are starting to spend money there to at least build a working Democratic Party in red areas, if not flip a chamber. “Running up the margins” in blue districts and preventing Republicans from doing so in red districts “can help Joe Biden win the state,” says Fergie Reid Jr. of 90 for 90, a group formed to honor his father, Fergie Reid Sr., who was elected in 1967 as Virginia’s first Black state legislator since Reconstruction, on his 90th birthday. (He’s now 95 and going strong.) It is one of the groups behind Virginia’s turnaround, by registering voters and recruiting Democratic challengers. Now it has helped inspire the late surge of Florida Democratic candidates.

...[I]n Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott is increasingly reviled for his pandemic management-- which is partly why Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their chances to win the nine seats they need to turn the state House. There are nine House districts held by Republicans that were won in 2018 by Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke, whose run is widely credited with reviving the state’s withered Democratic infrastructure. He lost to Senator Ted Cruz narrowly, but Democrats picked up an astonishing 12 seats in the House that year.

Run by a bumbling GOP trifecta in the age of coronavirus, ruby-red Texas is unpredictable this year. Biden even leads Trump in a few polls there. “Governor Abbott has taken all the ownership of Covid and has refused to believe science,” says second-time Texas House candidate Joanna Cattanach. “We have refrigerator trucks outside hospitals in Dallas County now.”

The net approval rating for Abbott’s response to Covid has slipped 21 points since June, when 56 percent of Texans approved and only 36 percent disapproved; he is now underwater, with 47 percent approval, 48 percent disapproval. “He’s really made himself the face of the pandemic,” Cattanach says, sounding bewildered. Not only did Abbott open businesses too soon, the 
public health data shows, but he also discouraged face masks and social distancing and even blocked localities from imposing stricter requirements.

...This year, some hope that a presidential election, which always gets more voters to the polls, could help boost Texas turnout-- but maybe not at the state legislative level. “We have to avoid down-ballot drop-off,” Cattanach says. That’s always a challenge in state legislative races, even in the hyperenergized Trump era. ”In 2018 our candidates underperformed Democrats in the same congressional district by about 4 points,” Forward Majority cofounder Vicky Hausman warns. “It’s a real problem.”

...Kathy Lewis, who’s running a second time for Florida’s Senate District 20, encompassing the Tampa–St. Petersburg area anchored by Hillsborough County, didn’t hear she was too liberal for the district in 2018. Mostly she didn’t hear anything, especially from Democratic Party leaders.

...“Everyone,” including many state Democratic leaders, “said we were crazy,” she recalls. “No one would vote for us. But the party had somehow miscalculated how much this district was changing.” She garnered an unexpected 46.5 percent of the vote, winning 52 percent in populous Hillsborough County. In 2020, Lee resigned, and suddenly the party had an open seat to contest. According to several reports, Democratic leaders approached at least two others to run, even though Lewis filed almost immediately after Lee’s announcement. “They said later they didn’t know I was on the ballot,” she says, sounding unconvinced.

If Democrats recruited two alternative potential candidates for Lee’s seat, they neglected a whole lot of other districts. That’s where 90 for 90 came in. After the group’s Virginia successes, it moved on to other states, helping recruit candidates where party leaders seemed unable or uninterested. In Florida the Reids reached out to Janelle Christensen, the energetic head of the state Democrats’ environmental caucus. “They explained the advantages of running in every district, and I said, ‘Hey, I’m convinced,’” she says. “It’s not necessarily that they’re going to win, although they could, but they can cut the margins in red districts for Biden and educate people on our issues.” She says she could fill maybe 10 challengers’ seats with folks close to her caucus. “But when I got started talking to them, they talked to their friends, and we recruited 36.” 90 for 90 also worked to help with the unlikely candidates’ state election filing fees, which are $1,800 each.

Other national groups, including the DLCC, have since jumped into Florida. “The conventional wisdom is there’s no path to winning the Florida House. We have a contrarian view,” says Hausman. As in Texas, there are districts that appear flippable, especially the 13 GOP-held seats that were won by either Clinton in 2016 or by gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum in 2018.

Still, many people feel the state party is undersupportive of its new insurgents. Inexplicably, challengers have had trouble getting access to VAN, a privately owned list of local voters, with names, addresses, and phone numbers, who have voted or might vote Democratic. “It felt like the party was constantly trying to reinterpret the rules for who qualifies [to get VAN],” Christensen says. “But even once you get it, most of the numbers are bad. Nobody’s even been trying in these districts, in some cases for decades. They’re useless for anyone coming in trying to organize. If all we did in these races is build a list of interested Democrats in VAN, that’s something.”

Sister District cofounder Gaby Goldstein, whose group is also working in Florida, says that’s a common problem in red states, many of which it has targeted since its founding in 2016. “In some places, we have to lay the basic groundwork because VAN is garbage. Many Democratic voter lists are garbage,” she says. I have heard this a lot in red states and districts over the last four years. There have always been stalwart Democratic activists in the reddest places, but a lot of state parties have let the infrastructure “wither away,” Goldstein says.

Lewis eventually got access to VAN. There are gaps in its data, but this time around, she’s more confident anyway. “You know what? With the coronavirus, we have local people who don’t have health care. They can’t access unemployment insurance. They know Florida is a mess,” she says. She adds that after hearing her story in 2018 about fighting with the state to get services for her daughter and hearing it again in 2020, people tell her, “Kathy, I didn’t understand last time, but now I see exactly what you were saying.”

Unfortunately, local party leaders still don’t seem to understand. Lewis benefited from a widely seen Zoom call in July led by Hillsborough County Democratic leader Ione Townsend with local Black leaders. When one asked about the party’s lack of support for Lewis her second time around, Townsend replied, “It’s not high on our list because of where the polling was. What we do is, we prioritize based on our overall goals. White, Black, brown-- it doesn’t matter who that candidate is, it’s where they fall on our election priority list.”

Angela Birdsong, a Hillsborough Democratic activist who ran for county commissioner in 2018, responded, “I just think any Black woman in the race right now stands a chance and should be given a little more money than you might think they need. I just feel that you should give them more money!”

Lewis, like other women of color running for office this year, believes the widespread American revulsion over George Floyd’s murder and the movement to end police violence buoy her campaign. For one thing, it has gotten people focused on the role of state and local leaders in reforming police departments. Here’s where electing Democrats can matter-- if not always enough. Colorado, which elected a Democratic trifecta over the past few cycles, did away with qualified immunity for police officers in June; New York, which completed a trifecta in 2018, enacted other criminal justice reforms. “We now have a Black Senate leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and a Black Assembly speaker, Carl Heastie,” the DLCC’s Post says of New York. “That’s truly made a difference.”

...Even in Virginia in 2019, Bachman observes, “Democrats keep underperforming,” at least partly because outreach to voters scored as less likely to vote was sometimes undervalued when it came to door knocking, media buys, and direct mail. Virginia Democrats took control of both chambers but won only two state Senate seats, fewer than expected. “Given the nature of the 2016 election, the voters who stayed home skewed to Democrats,” she adds. “It couldn’t be more clear that the path to winning more seats is getting lower-propensity voters, particularly lower-propensity voters of color, engaged with our message and turning them out.”

That’s especially true, Abrams says, since 2020 is another census year, with participation threatened by the pandemic and Trump administration malfeasance. “If we do not have adequate participation by voters of color in November,” she warns, “gerrymandering will be worse than we’ve ever seen.”

Jacob Malinowski, a candidate for the Wisconsin Assembly for the red-leaning southwest corner of Milwaukee County told me today that "In Wisconsin, there are a lot of obstacles for Democratic State Assembly candidates: the map is the worst gerrymander in the country, and many national resources are focused on a select few races. Furthermore, if Republicans make just a few gains, they'll have a veto-proof supermajority with no check on their power. But in the southwest suburbs of Milwaukee, I'm running to win. My district is a 50-50 flip that nobody is paying attention to, and we're using this to our advantage to flip the seat right under the noses of the GOP. With hard work and real conversations, I'm running a new, post-partisan campaign to build lasting progressive power in my home state. If we can win here, then the path to a people-first Wisconsin is clear: run hard-working candidates everywhere who offer real ideas and speak to the lived experience in their districts, not just the same talking points."

Christine Pellegrino is running for the New York state Senate (SD-4) in Suffolk County (Babylon and Islip), a swing district currently represented by Trumpist Phil Boyle. "For candidates like me," Pellegrino told us, "2020 will allow suburban progressives to win seats at the table of power. For too long, State House Democratic majorities have used the objections of their moderate suburban colleagues as the reason to hold up the progressive legislation we need. If more suburban progressives get elected, these excuses will no longer hold water, which means that the path to enacting progressive legislation runs through the suburbs. And I've won this kind of race before, by a landslide. I was the 2nd national red to blue flip in my 2017 special election for New York State Assembly, a harbinger for the 2018 Blue Wave midterms. And once I'm in the New York State Senate, we will be able to help reverse the damage of 2010 by fully funding our schools and libraries, improving our infrastructure, and fighting for the healthcare we all deserve. Suburban down-ballot progressives are the crucible-- the testing ground-- for enacting an agenda that helps poor and working people and families first. If Albany can pass progressive legislation, other states and the federal government will be able to accrue the support to pass similar reforms. Down ballot races like mine are the cornerstone of lasting political revolution."

Missouri state Rep Deb Lavender first ran for the legislature in 2008 and told us that she "was finally successful in 2014 running four cycles in a row. I watched firsthand in 2010 how the Tea Party swept across Missouri, and the nation, and watched as good Democrats lost their seats. Republicans picked up seats in Missouri for the next two elections. Until 2014 Missouri lost so many state legislative seats we dipped into a super minority in both chambers. In 2016 we elected a Republican Governor and since then have lost all legislative issues that are important to Democrats. In 2018, I watched my own state Senator, Andrew Koenig, file and pass one of the nation's most restrictive pieces of abortion legislation, leaving no exceptions for rape or incest.  Democratic senators negotiated as best as possible and yet in the end, we still passed one of the most egregious bills in the nation, because senators are also in the super-minority in Missouri. Being an elected official is about more than having power, it's about having a seat at the table to effect positive change and pass laws that improve peoples' lives. Unfortunately today in Missouri, Democrats are not welcome at the table, not in the House or in the Senate."

Deb won her race for state Representative in 2014, flipping a long held Republican seat. Over the last 6 years Democrats have picked up 4 additional seats in the state House and one in the state Senate, a good start, though not near what they need win to get out of the super-minority.

She told me that "a year ago I decided to run for this Senate seat knowing we had a chance to flip the Senate seat as I had my House seat. I have worked hard for the people in my district and have used my platform on the Budget Committee, where even a Democrat can make some change. I had the opportunity to meet Jessica Post in 2015 (she started her career here in Missouri), and she looks forward to the day when Missouri is ready to flip a chamber to Democrat again. Until then, I am proud of the results she has made across the nation in picking up so many seats these last years. A significant turning point for Missouri was when we finally became the 38th state to pass Medicaid Expansion in August of this year. My experience in budget will allow me the opportunity in the Senate, to implement Medicaid expansion. The stars are aligning and there are good signs that I will win this seat. Every week, the five women running for the State House in my senate district and I get together to discuss strategy and learn from each other what we are doing to win our races. I look forward to us all flipping Republican-held seats for Democrats this year."

 

The Florida Primaries Happened Yesterday

Hard-fought wins in north Florida last night-- Angie and Adam

I get sick of repeating it so frequently, so I can imagine if you keep hearing it, you must get sick of it even more, but I'll say it again-- if the Ohio Democratic Party ceased to exist (which would be a really good thing for Ohio Democratic candidates)-- the Florida Democratic Party would be the worst in the country. But I'll add something, now I've never said before: after working with so many Floridians running for office this cycle, I feel confident in saying that the Florida Democratic Party is rapidly catching up-- in terms of over-all wretchedness and willful incompetence-- with the Ohio party.

Yesterday our progressive candidates did exceedingly well in Florida, up and down the ballot. With all the races decided, nearly all the candidates Blue America supported will be in the general election. Our two giant primary winners yesterday were Adam Christensen for Congress (FL-03) and Angie Nixon for state House, who displaced the wicked witch of the north in the hottest Democratic primary in the state. Click on the thermometer on the right to see who all the progressive candidates we're supporting who will be on the general election ballot, including Cindy Banyai and Alan Cohn for Congress, Kathy Lewis, Rachel Brown and Heather Hunter for state Senate, and 15 state House candidates. Only one race remains undecided-- HD-32, where Ryan Morales, our candidate, is slightly behind.

"The primary results last night across Florida show voters are hungry for change," state House candidate Joshua Hicks told us this morning. "They want leaders who will address the important issues around the dinner table; not defend the corporate interests. I'm ready, from day one, to represent my entire community and to go to work every day in Tallahassee fighting for all of us. This race is not about me; it's about the people and the change we can make together in Northeast Florida. Republicans, Independents and Democrats are coming together in District 11 to demand more from their leaders and I'm ready to take on that demand, and get to work for them this November."

Yesterday's early morning ABC News post, before the polls in Florida had opened, by Will McDuffie-- Democratic activists hope down-ballot blitz in Florida pays off up-ballot-- probably created most excitement for his readers in something that wasn't as essential to me: "the tactic could be the key to Dems winning the state," by "Dems," Biden/Harris. Florida had no gubernatorial or U.S. Senate race on the ballot yesterday-- just some congressional races, few of which were seen as competitive-- and a lot of legislative races, an area where the state party has failed miserably year after year after year and seems as eager to fail again. 

Trump is doing himself in in Florida, and polls indicate Floridians-- laid low as a state by his handling of the pandemic-- are going to be unkind to him in November. The polling average shows Trump losing to Biden 50.3% to 45.3% and the most recent public poll (last week), CNBC's by Change Research shows Trump doing even worse-- 44%. "Scarred by narrow defeats at the ballot box in recent years," wrote McDuffie, "Democrats in Florida are planning a different approach this fall: Compete everywhere, no matter the odds." Ummm... "Democrats in Florida?" No! Activists, who the Florida Democratic Party worked against, is a more accurate description of who planned for and fought for that approach. Democrats, though not the incompetent hacks who make careers for themselves by working for the state party, "are touting the fact they have a candidate on the ballot in 140 out of 141 state House and Senate races, a strategy activists there say will spur Democratic turnout this fall, boosting Joe Biden and helping the party chip away at its deficit in both chambers of the state Legislature." Yep, that's the plan-- chipping away at the GOP grip on the legislature and helping reinvigorate a moribund party that has spent too much time in the last 2 decades protecting Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her cronies and no time at all on the offense.

The effort was conceived by Democratic activist Fergie Reid, Jr., who led a campaign in Virginia to register voters and recruit Democratic candidates, which culminated last year in the party's wresting control of the statehouse in Richmond.

The same, Reid believes, is possible in Florida.

"Florida is on the razor's edge," Reid said in an interview with ABC News. "It's not some inherent advantage that Republicans have. Democrats are just not playing hard enough."

In March, noticing that 33 state House and Senate races lacked Democratic candidates, Reid, who lives in California, enlisted activists on the ground to recruit Democrats to challenge for those seats. By the filing deadline in June, his team had filled each race. (One House candidate was disqualified from her race because of a technicality with her filing paperwork; she is challenging in court).

As of June 30, registered Democrats in Florida outnumbered registered Republicans by more than 250,000, according to the Florida Department of State's website.

The problem is, many rarely see enough Democrats on their ballots.

In 2016, 21 state House and Senate races went uncontested by Democrats, according to Florida Division of Elections archives. Donald Trump won Florida by only 113,000 votes, capturing 29 electoral votes in a key swing state that likely will prove critical again in 2020.

Democrats in Florida have suffered other losses by the thinnest of margins. In 2018, Republican Rick Scott edged incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson by about 10,000 votes, while Ron DeSantis beat out Democrat Andrew Gillum in the race for governor 49.6% to 49.2%.

Democratic activists have said flooding local races with candidates can erase those margins by producing a "reverse coattail" effect.

"The further down-ballot you have candidates, the more it helps up-ballot," Reid said. When Democrats don't have a Democrat to vote for, "They have to vote for the Republican, or just choose not to vote. And those people who choose not to vote, maybe they just don't go vote at all. And that causes depression at the top."

Down-ballot candidates can engage voters in a way candidates running for statewide or national office typically don't, according to Janelle Christensen, president of the Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida, and a key player in the effort to recruit candidates to run for Florida's state legislature.

"When people have relationships with people locally who are running for office, they feel more engaged in the election process. They're more likely to vote, they're more likely to pay attention," Christensen explained.

...Beyond boosting Biden, Reid and Christensen hope that running more candidates will produce gains in the state Legislature, where Republicans hold a six-seat advantage in the Senate and a 26-seat advantage in the House.

The strategy, they said, is simple: The more races you compete in, the better your odds of winning seats.

They worry, however, that Democrats in the state have historically ignored races the party deemed unwinnable, focusing attention and funds on more competitive races in the state's urban centers, allowing Republican candidates to run up the score in rural counties.

"The argument I push back on the most is, 'That district is not winnable,'" Reid said. "That argument is asinine to me. How can you expect to win if you don't play?"

That argument, though, surfaced last month when State Sen. Gary Farmer, the incoming Democratic Leader in the chamber, published a Tweet that dismissed races like Butler's in District 1 as "long shots" and suggesting that the party should not fund them. "I'm guided by science and reality. Contesting every race is great if you have $ to do so. We simply don't & won't until we achieve majority," he wrote.

Farmer didn't respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

"I disagree with him," said Eubanks, of Escambia County. "Because if Democrats don't have anyone to vote for, when are we ever going to get more people who will run for office and be able to win seats?"

On Wednesday, with the primaries over, the Florida Democratic Party plans to introduce new investments as part of its "elections program," created in June to assist Democrats in down-ballot races statewide. Rosy Gonzalez Speers, the FDP's [incredibly incompetent and venal] senior adviser for down-ballot elections, is optimistic that the party can flip some state legislative seats blue, while also boosting turnout for Biden.

One thing is absolutely certain, if Rosy Gonzalez Speers, Party chair Terrie Rizzo and party executive director Juan Peñalosa all moved to Columbus and went to work for the Ohio Democratic Party, it wouldn't make that party any worse, but it would at least offer Florida Democrats a way out of the deep, dark hole it has dug for itself with years and years and years of mismanagement and terrible, defensive, loser strategy.

Bob Lynch is the general election candidate against entrenched Trumpist incumbent Daniel Perez in Miami-Dade. This morning he told me that he's "very glad that ABC News and other reporters are starting to dig around in Florida. There is a Pulitzer waiting for a reporter willing to strike the main nerve. The most important thing is to get Biden/Harris elected. If we don’t do that, none of the rest of it matters." 

But then he took a different tack than one normally hears from a first-time candidate about to embark on a general election campaign: "Between the reluctance of mega donors wanting to contribute to the state party due to the fraudulent PPP fiasco, sitting legislators telling Latina women not to run to make it easier for their Republican friends [the Republican "friend" lost her primary in a landslide last night, by the way], and senior level MDC and other county officials saying it is a waste of time and money to support female black candidates, we are facing an uphill battle. Meanwhile, people are dying and starving. Our teachers are in danger. Our national Senators are completely corrupt and helping the Russians. We have the historic chance to flip Florida and coupled with the Census, we can change the state for a decade. For whatever reason, our own party doesn’t even think it is worth a shot to help candidates unless they can raise enough money to get their preferred consultants and vendors paid. I knew going into it that politics was going to be a dirty game. I just never thought that one of the biggest fights was going to be against people who are supposed to be on our same side."

I suspect we're going to be hearing a lot more from Bob between now and November-- and beyond. And from Adam Christensen as well. It was close and a late call-- around noon today-- but...

Some People See An Obstacle As The End Of The Road. For Florida Democrat Kathy Lewis Obstacles Have Always Been Challenges To Overcome

Kathy Lewis is a candidate for one of the most crucial of the Florida state Senate seats-- District 20, which covers parts of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties in the greater Tampa Bay area. The election on November 3 will be a special election and the general election because right-wing Republican Tom Lee is retiring effective that day. The winner gets sworn in immediately, not in January. In 2018 Kathy decided to run against Lee. The party-- the Democratic Party-- laughed at her and derided her as wasting everyone's time and refused to back her. Refusing to back Democratic reformers is the only thing the Florida Democratic Party is good at But without their help, she nearly flipped the seat, coming within 6 points of winning and coming close to actually making the Democrats-- despite themselves-- a viable force instead of a joke in Tallahassee. This is her second run for the seat. The party-- yeah, the Florida Democratic Party-- is still deriding her. In 2018 the party operatives said that no one would vote for her, that the seat was "unwinnable," and yet she overperformed massively, receiving 46.5% of the vote. Would she have won with party help? No one will ever know-- especially since the Florida Democrats are not helping her again-- even though she's running for an open seat against a Republican hack who has been working in the incredibly unpopular, even hated, Ron DeSantis administration, Daniel Burgess.

After meeting Kathy through 90 For 90, which is gung ho on her election chances, I asked her to introduce herself to DWT readers. Please hear her out and consider contributing to her campaign by clicking on the Blue America 2020 Florida thermometer below. You can learn more about her campaign here.


Overcoming "Unwinnable" Situations
by Kathy Lewis

My entire childhood and most of my adult life, I have been told that I am in unwinnable situations. Even some leaders in the Democratic party continue to say that my 2020 Florida Senate campaign is an unwinnable contest. But those doubters do not know me. I am from Baltimore. I grew up in one of the worst neighborhoods in the country, an unwinnable place. I was surrounded by poverty, gun violence, illegal drug use, and learned helplessness-- it was an unwinnable road at every turn.

Every day there was an active shooter outside. I have a cousin who was shot in the chest with a stray bullet and miraculously survived. Another cousin’s 4-year-old daughter was shot in the head with a stray bullet-- she survived, but with permanent, debilitating brain damage. My aunt was brutally murdered, shot in the head during a home invasion. My friend at age 14 had his head blown off accidentally with a shotgun. And my own mother survived being shot with a stray bullet when I was just 10 years old.

When you hear stories about gun violence in poor neighborhoods, understand that it is not just bad people shooting and killing other bad people. None of my family members were criminals, we were just poor. I knew I had to get out of that unwinnable situation.

My father was one of the first African-American firefighters in Baltimore and my mother stayed at home to raise my sister and me. I scratched and clawed my way out of the ’hood. I set specific goals, worked hard, and I graduated from Johns Hopkins University. I met my husband, Bertram, when we were both students at Hopkins and training for our black belts in Shotokan Karate. Bert is now a surgeon and we have been married for 28 years. Interesting fact about my husband: He has studied hard and earned multiple college degrees, including a BS, MSE, MD, PhD, and an MBA. As a Black couple, we see the value of education, especially higher education, as a way for people to better their lives.

Through education, Bertram and I were able to offer a better future and better opportunities for our children. Our eldest daughter also graduated from Johns Hopkins University and is a Fulbright scholar who studied in Seoul, South Korea, and is now fluent in Korean. She was also a Rhodes Scholar Finalist and earned a full academic scholarship at the University of South Florida (USF) for her master’s degree. Our younger daughter, who has a disability, graduated from The Learning Academy at USF.

I decided to run for office after becoming fed up and frustrated trying to get the healthcare benefits for my daughter. I had to fight tenaciously, every day for months and months to make sure she received the benefits and care she needs. Fighting to find our way through the bureaucracy and apathy of our government agencies was awful. It was so terrible that finally I emailed almost every single person in the Medicare, Medicaid, Medwaiver systems, because I just could not take the appalling lack of response anymore. I sent a total of 75 emails late one night.

The very next morning I was granted a phone call with the Secretary of Health and Human Services Office. Within two days my daughter’s case was approved and her benefits ready to go. It took people from national offices in Washington DC to get our local Florida agency workers to do their jobs. And I am not saying that are local agency employees are at fault—they, too, suffer from working an inefficient and broken system.

My family is not the only one dealing with a broken system. There are tens of thousands of Florida families struggling to navigate our state agencies, especially now with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are seeing failures in our systems like our Florida unemployment website and with virus testing.

I do not share my personal stories to gain sympathy or to sensationalize my life’s circumstances. I share them with you to illustrate how escaping poverty gave me a unique and valuable set of skills for survival and success. I know how to solve problems. I know how to win against unwinnable odds. I know how to get things done in a fearless and caring way. Vote for me on November 3, because I will fight for Florida families.

If The GOP Continues To Block Aid, States Like Florida Will Start Going Bankrupt

NPR issued a depressing report yesterday: States Are Broke And Many Are Eyeing Massive Cuts. One of the sticking points in coming to an agreement over the pandemic rescue package is that the already passed House bill, the $3 trillion HEROES Act, contains around a trillion dollars for state and local governments. The Republicans would like to see that come down a bit-- to zero.

NPR noted that the "pandemic could swipe roughly $200 billion from state coffers by June of next year... Record-high unemployment has wreaked havoc on personal income taxes and sales taxes, two of the biggest sources of revenue for states. Hawaii's and Nevada's tourism industries have crashed, and states like Alaska, Oklahoma and Wyoming have been hit by the collapse of oil markets. From March through May of this year, 34 states experienced at least a 20% drop in revenue compared with the same period last year.

With dwindling cash, cuts to education, health care and other areas are inevitable in many places. State leaders have described the situation as "unprecedented," "horrifying" and "devastating." Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, compared his state's budget cuts to the Red Wedding scene in HBO's Game of Thrones.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said, "Responding to this crisis has created a multiyear budget crisis unlike anything the state has ever faced before, more than three times worse than the Great Recession."

For example, so far that state has cut nearly $190 million from higher education. Programs designed to reduce crime in Baltimore also took a hit, as did foster care providers and public defenders.

And state leaders everywhere are getting nervous as the economy shows little signs of a swift recovery.

In March, Congress worked quickly to pass an aid package worth $2 trillion-- called the CARES Act-- which offered relief to state and local governments, individuals, small and large businesses, and hospitals affected by the coronavirus crisis.

But language in the law requires that funds go to expenses related to COVID-19 and not to plug holes in budgets, with few exceptions (though some state leaders have used creative accounting to make the money work the way they want it to).

Republicans and Democrats in states such as Maryland, California, Michigan, Iowa, Georgia, New York and Illinois have asked Congress for additional funds that they say are critical to stay afloat.

Others don't agree. Last week, more than 200 state lawmakers signed onto a letter from the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization of conservative lawmakers, opposing further federal money for states. The letter reads, "The American people are being forced to make difficult but fiscally responsible decisions during the pandemic, and states need to do the same."

The Democratic-led U.S. House passed a bill to inject more money into states, but many Republican lawmakers say any new money has to be for items directly related to the virus, not to pay down deficits in the states.

California has gone as far as preparing a contingency budget: If additional federal money does not come through, the state will have to furlough state workers and slash funding for state universities and courts. It would also mean that K-12 school districts and community colleges won't receive nearly $12 billion in upfront state payments at a time when costs could be at an all-time high.

"The federal government has a moral, ethical and economic obligation to help support the states," said California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

Florida was one of the states hit hardest-- from the coronavirus itself-- and by the economic and financial side-effects. Sometime this week, Florida will cross the half million cases mark, something only California-- which has a much bigger population-- has done. Florida has 23,156 cases per million residents, worse than New York and New Jersey. The only states worse off are Louisiana and Arizona, although Mississippi is catching up. Florida reported 245 more deaths today, bringing the state total to a rapidly increasing 7,402.

In a state that depends on tourists, what happens when there are few to none? After months of stalling and insisting that lawmakers would not need to return to Tallahassee to balance the budget, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis recently approved the largest financial vetoes in Florida history, canceling out more than $1 billion in spending for the upcoming fiscal year.

The state's revenue shortfall has ballooned to nearly $2.1 billion since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Unemployment in the state has soared to Depression-era levels and Medicaid rolls have swelled. Only some of the cuts are being supplanted by federal relief funds.

Florida initially avoided worst-case scenarios but is now seeing a surge in coronavirus infections, mere weeks after attempting to reopen shuttered businesses. Democrats, locked out of decision-making, have railed against DeSantis. "Just lead, damn it. Just lead," said state Democratic Rep. Janet Cruz.

Despite calls to roll back reopenings, DeSantis is holding firm, saying, "When you have a virus that disproportionally impacts one segment of society, to suppress a lot of working-age people at this point, I don't think would be very effective."

Florida progressive Katherine Norman

The Republican controlled state legislature is hoping voters don't notice that they aren't doing anything to help mitigate the catastrophe. I asked some of the sharpest Democrats running to replace them in November, like Katherine Norman, who is running for the state Senate seat currently held by Joe Gruters, co-chair of Trump's reelection campaign and chairman of the Florida Republican Party. "Florida's elected officials and long time Trump sycophants are banking on our complacency," she told me this morning. In my race in Sarasota and Charlotte County most people I speak to don't even know who our State Senator is. Little do they know. While the Florida GOP leaders operate to advance this administration on single voter issues to the detriment and neglect of constituents in District 23 and all Floridians, they also drive us toward the complete devastation of this entire nation, toward the existential crises of climate change and the mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. While we hold moments of silence for the over 7,100 Floridians dead from COVID-19, Joe Gruters goes door-knocking. Taking group photos maskless, fistbumping volunteers building a red army in Tampa. How could any responsible leader in a COVID epicenter go door knocking while interacting in a group maskless? What could possibly motivate an elected official to risk the literal lives of citizens? Joe Gruters' entire career centers around his total and complete idealization of Trump."

"When we choose to endorse an individual versus ideals, policies, and vision, it is a dangerous slippery slope." Norman continued. "We must hold individuals and especially elected officials accountable for their actions. We cannot decide to endorse an individual that fails to live up to the standards they purport to represent. If elected officials do not live up to their promises, even within one's own party, they should be held accountable. This should be a normalized, accepted, and even promoted part of the political process. Our local leaders should be loyal to our districts, our counties, our communities. They should represent our values. This has been part of my experience in the Democratic Party as a candidate for the Florida Legislature. At the sometimes detriment of unity, the Democratic Party is inclusive, allowing for everyone to have am equal voice. This means we judge and evaluate the morals of many different perspectives which can lead to more diverse opinions within our party. I am incredibly proud of this facet of the Democratic Party. Democrats seek to be the party that strives for ideal human rights-- for one, for all. We do not strive for blind loyalty. We are the party of the people. Unfortunately, when Gruters sold out in late 2014, he decided to choose blind loyalty either because he is completely and utterly selfish, happy to exploit the political process to his financial gain, or because he is too completely ethically vacant and inept that he doesn't actually realize how devastating this administration's actions are. Either way this is a dangerous individual happy to claim to represent constituents' values while not fit to be representing the interests of constituents anywhere. How can he represent Sarasota and Charlotte County when he is forced to represent Trump?"

Jared West, also a progressive Democrat running against an entrenched Trumpist incumbent, told me that morning that "According to Rep. Sam Killebrew (HD41), he’s proud of the state budget and Florida is in a good place. But then again, he also voted against having a special session to fix unemployment, expand Medicaid, and auto enroll Floridians in vote by mail. He also spent 80+ days during this crisis ignoring his constituents and hiding in his multi-million dollar home and not speaking about or helping at all. He left paper unemployment applications outside of his locked district office-- that’s the extent of what he’s done to help during this crisis. And he won’t do anything else, because he’s so deep in bed with businesses. He’s raised over $50,000.00 and only one donation of $250.00 is from a person, but he does have over 6 donations of $1000 from Walt Disney World, and donations from predatory companies like Amscot. He doesn’t care about the people of Florida, and as his constituents lose homes and 25% (pre coronavirus) are food insecure, he hasn’t done a damn thing to fix it."

Anselm Weber is running strong for an open red-leaning district in southwest Florida. He told me that whichever of the two Republicans who will face him after their primary "has made his whole campaign about supporting the Trump agenda without any attention given to Floridians facing eviction, low wages, or who have lost health insurance. They chickened out of a League of Women Voters' forum with me, probably because they knew I would give massive pushback against their ludicrous 'plans.' They would rather us go back to work while putting the working class through massive health hazards than do basic relief measures. It is desperation mode in the sunshine state, yet the state and the GOP would rather do socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for low income residents."

Progressive Democrat Joshua Hicks is running in a northeast Florida state House district that includes all of Nassau County and part of Duval. He told me that "Earlier this year, when the coronavirus was starting to impact Florida, my opponent, Cord Byrd, had an opportunity to place people over politics. He had an opportunity to support a special Legislative Session that would have addressed the ongoing crisis going on in Florida. With so many Floridians struggling right now, especially small businesses and those who lost their jobs at no fault of their own, he had an opportunity to place the district first. He failed. My opponent voted against a special session to expand Medicaid, address Florida's broken unemployment system, and protect the right to vote during the pandemic. This was just the latest example of Cord Byrd’s failed leadership in District 11. He pays lip service to constituents, but when it comes to working on concrete solutions which provides the people immediate relief, he says no. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It’s about helping families who are struggling at no fault of their own. We have an economy that’s devastated. Unemployed workers and small businesses still need relief. We’re in the middle of a global health crisis and uninsured Floridians need healthcare. Sadly, my opponent only cares about what's best for him, not the people he represents. That's why I'm running to beat him this November. We need someone in Tallahassee who will place the people first and address the issues that matter most. It's time we 'cut the cord' on Cord Byrd in Northeast Florida."

New Candidate Alert-- Jared West (D-FL)

Alan Grayson represented a big part of Polk County as part of his Orlando-metro congressional district. He's been very enthusiastic about the future of Polk Co. and has spoken with me for years about how well it has been developing politically. Now one of the best candidates running anywhere in Florida for the state House, is running in Polk County's 41st House district. He worked for Disney World and Atkins Global Engineering and, believing a community is not a community unless people work for a better tomorrow, has also worked for community-based organizations. That’s why in 2016 he served as President on the non-profit A Voice For Them and helped fund rehabilitation for people suffering from drug addiction. As someone who has worked part-time jobs in the past to pay the bills, Jared understands the struggles the people in his district, which includes Winter Haven, Davenport, Haines City, Dundee and Eagle Lake.

And, speaking about HD-41, although there is a Republican incumbent, Sam Killebrew, who the Florida Democratic Party had decided to not challenge, the district is exactly the kind of district that the party can and must flip to win back the legislature. Currently this is the party registration for HD-41:

• Democrats- 48,420
• Republicans- 42,282
• Independents (NPA)- 37,901

West stepped in where the party feared to tread. That's the kind of guy he is. When I first started to get to know him, he and his husband, Matthew, had just celebrated their 4th anniversary, and seemed super-excited about building their lives in Polk County, where they bought a house a few years ago. A strong Berniecrat, I think I need to introduce him to Grayson, who he told me was an inspiration to him while he was in Congress. I asked him to write a guest post introducing himself to DWT readers. If you like what he has to say and would like to help a strong, dedicated progressive replace a garden variety conservative, please click on the Blue America Florida 2020 thermometer above and consider contributing what you can to Jared West's campaign.

As of yesterday, Ron DeSantis' and Sam Killebrew's Florida had surpassed New York in total number of confirmed COVID-cases. And where New York has the pandemic under control, Florida's leaders have refused to take the tough decisions needed to beat the virus. Polk County now has 11,893 cases, 11,657 of them active! There were 16 new deaths Tuesday, 5th highest in the state, bringing the total to 236. This isn't going to be helpful to any Republicans on the ballot this November-- not Trump and not Killebrew.


Stepping Into The Breach
-by Jared West

Growing up as a gay man in small town Indiana, it was never easy to exist. I was born in LaPorte, but lived in Walkerton, which, as you may remember, was the location of the pizza place that refused to serve gay weddings after Vice President (then Governor) Mike Pence passed the Religious Freedom Law. To my knowledge I was the only openly gay male in Walkerton.

The point is, I had to learn real quick to have thick skin. I’ve been called every name in the book. I’ve been threatened, harassed, bullied and physically harmed. Due to this, every morning, the fire burning in me grew stronger to do more to fight back. I started becoming more politically involved around that time, planning rallies against the laws Mike Pence passed, volunteering for candidates, and eventually becoming president of a not for profit which fundraised money to fund rehab for those with opioid addictions.

I moved to Florida in 2012 and unfortunately this community is very much like my previous one and faces many of the same issues. Food insecurity, lack of affordable housing, a crippling drug epidemic, and openly racist and hateful elected officials like Grady Judd, who use a national platform to only speak hate.

Stepping up to run as a first time candidate, for me, was a no brainer. I’m use to being out of my comfort zone and fighting for my community. I’ve spent my entire life fighting.

I find it sad that so many of our residents are struggling, and yet our Republican controlled government refuses to do anything about it. There is NO EXCUSE for ignoring your constituents for multiple terms, and doing absolutely NOTHING to help them and actually actively work against them by doing things like stripping away municipal ability to require developers to set aside a portion for affordable housing, taking away sanitary laws, continuing a systemic dismantling of our public school system, and refusing to hold a special session to fix our EXTREMELY BROKEN unemployment system.

We need to hold these people accountable NOW, and you can do so this November by voting for candidates like me, fighters, who will listen to the needs of constituents and actually do something about it. I’m tired of sitting back and watching my friends, family, and neighbors struggle while these Republican Representatives continue to do as they please. My opponent has even gone on the record making awful remarks, once stating “Liberals are acting like (President-elect Donald) Trump is going to kill all the gays, make slavery legal again and take away women's right. Did he become a Muslim?" in a facebook post in 2016. It wasn't easy to come to the decision to run, but we can not let him go unopposed again.

The WONDERFUL thing about this district is that we now have 6,138 more democrats than Republicans, and gained 108 new registered Democrats just last month. We also lead massively in Democratic vote by mail registration.

28 of my 35 precincts now have more Democrats than Republicans, and my ground game has started and is going strong. My opponent has yet to lift a finger to campaign, which is yet another blessing.

My opponent ran unopposed in 2018, but in 2016 he won by 2%, and this district for many years has had narrow losses for Democrats.

It’s been 80 + days since he (my opponent) has mentioned coronavirus, 90+ days since he’s mentioned unemployment (our unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 19.1%, the fourth highest in Florida, and of course he voted against having a special session to fix unemployment and expand Medicaid.

The only thing he does have going for him is donations. He has over $40,000 on hand, but not a single penny of it has come from people, it’s all from businesses. I on the other hand have raised about $7,500 since may and it’s all from individuals, over 100 of them.

I can not wait to get elected and make real change for the people in this district. We currently have a shortage of affordable housing, a lack of high paying jobs, and a 25% food insecurity rate. We need someone in this seat who will listen, rather than ignore and hide when the going gets tough. I grew up the only openly gay man in a small town called Walkerton, Indiana. I’m a fighter by nature, and I’m going to ensure my district thrives. With a little help and a lot of hard work, I really can flip this district and make a huge difference here.