The beginning of May marks several milestones. We have 108 days until our August Primary when we can elect a Democratic Mayor of Miami-Dade for the first time in 16 years. 

And we have 185 days until November 3, when we defeat Trump and send a new crop of Democrats to Tallahassee to hold Governor DeSantis accountable for the mess Florida is in.

We’re in a strong position to do both of these things, thanks to historically high Democratic voter registration in Miami-Dade. We announced this week that we had 616,553 registered Democrats in our county, an increase of nearly 14,000 voters since the 2018 election. We’re proud of that enormous voter registration push, and we think it puts us in a strong position for the August and November elections. 

Now our focus is on making phone calls to voters around the county to enroll them in Vote-By-Mail. And we made the decision weeks ago that these phone calls would be wellness checks first. There is dire need in Miami-Dade County. In fact, there is real food insecurity here due to the combination of joblessness and the broken unemployment system that Rick Scott and the Republican legislature in Tallahassee created.

On these phone banks, we’ve connected voters with resources they need. We’ve heard from folks who ask for help finding food distributions. And we’ve helped many, many voters enroll in Vote-By-Mail.

What We’re Doing During the Month of May

We’ve scheduled weekday and weekend phone banks for every week in May, and we hope you can sign up for a shift. You’ll be helping your neighbors find resources and you’ll be helping our democracy at the same time. We hold trainings for these phone banks each week as well. Sign up for a shift here:

We Won’t Stop Talking About Vote-By-Mail

Donald Trump may not want us to vote by mail, but that’s not going to stop us from talking about it, explaining how it works, and urging Democrats to enroll in it. 

We expect our Supervisor of Elections, Christina White, will be sending out a direct mailing to voters in Miami-Dade informing them about the option to enroll in Vote-By-Mail. 

It’s up to us to follow up and encourage Democrats across the county to enroll. It is likely that there will still be some form of social distancing in place until there is an effective vaccine for coronavirus, and that will probably not happen until early 2021. So while in-person voting will still be an option to some degree, it will be much more limited, and we need to prepare Democrats across Miami-Dade to vote from the safety and comfort of their homes. 

“I’m An August Voter” Campaign

Turnout in Miami-Dade for the last August Primary in 2018 was 21.35%. In August 2016, it was 20.1%. This August, we have the historic opportunity to reshape county government, as we elect the County Mayor, more than half the County Commission, half of the school board seats, plus county judges and State Attorney races and several municipal elections. From now until voting begins for the August election, we will be working to elevate the importance of voting in the August election. Do you have a story about why you’ll be voting in August? Let us know. Join the “I’m An August Voter” campaign. 

Fundraising

We can’t sugarcoat this. Our fundraising has taken a hit during the coronavirus pandemic. Everywhere we look we see the consequences of decades of Republican misrule in Florida, and the devastating consequences of the chaos and cruelty coming from the White House. More than ever, we need fundamental change in our government. Now.

Several facts remain. 

1. Trump knows he cannot win re-election without winning the state of Florida and its 29 electoral votes. We’ve run simulation after simulation, and it comes back the same: if Trump loses Florida, he loses re-election.
2. If Miami-Dade County had turned out at the same level as Northern Florida in 2018, Rick Scott would not be in the Senate now and Ron DeSantis would not be our governor. The key to flipping Florida is right here, in Miami-Dade County. 
3. Last fact: the Miami-Dade Democratic Party is the only Democratic Party organization solely focused on boosting voter turnout in Miami-Dade County.

The good news is it doesn’t take much to get us back on track. If everyone reading this email became a $5 per month sustaining donor, we could help 100,000 Democrats enroll in Vote-By-Mail and that would lift our turnout immensely.

Sign up for email updates, and join us at county and local club meetings to learn how to get more involved.