The chance to increase Florida's minimum wage to $15/hour is finally in the hands of voters. While the 2020 Florida ballot is not as packed with amendments as we saw in 2018, there are still some important amendments to vote on and we hope you read our recommendations and rationale.

For candidate endorsements, please visit www.votefordemocrats.miami

Lee las recomendaciones para las enmiendas de Florida 2020 en español

12 Days After Mucarsel-Powell Accepts 3 Debates, Gimenez Refuses to Accept Them

MIAMI — Nearly two weeks after Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell accepted three invitations to debate (two in Spanish, one in English), Carlos Gimenez has been in hiding.

Twelve days after Rep. Mucarsel-Powell accepted debates with CBS Miami, Radio Actualidad, and Telemundo 51 Miami, Carlos Gimenez is refusing to agree to any of these debates and is sidelining the Spanish-speaking voters in Florida’s 26th Congressional District.

It's official: Carlos Gimenez is hiding from the voters.

Today is a new day. RBG fought for justice and wanted to have her replacement selected after the next President is elected. It’s on us to preserve democracy. What can you do?

MIAMI-DADE, FL: The Miami-Dade Democratic Party unanimously passed a resolution at its General Body meeting on September 15th calling on Miami-Dade County to dramatically expand voting opportunities. The resolution was sponsored by the Miami-Dade Democratic Party’s General Counsel, Marc Burton.

The resolution calls on Miami-Dade County to add as many secure Vote-by-Mail drop boxes as possible, with a goal of doubling the number of existing drop boxes to 66 locations spread across the county. Adding secure Vote-by-Mail drop boxes will relieve pressure on postal deliveries and reduce crowding at the polls, benefiting the health and safety of voters and poll workers alike.

The resolution also calls for 24-hour drop boxes to be made available in Miami-Dade County, as they are in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. 

The resolution states that all drop boxes should remain in place for voters to use from the beginning of Early Voting through the end of voting on Election Day. During the August primary, the Miami-Dade Democratic Party Voter Protection Team encountered many voters who thought they could drop their ballots off at Early Voting sites on Election Day, only to discover that the drop boxes had been removed. As a result, a significant number of ballots were never returned. We believe the county should eliminate this cause for confusion by making it easy for voters to safely and securely drop off their Vote-by-Mail ballots at secure drop boxes all the way through Election Day at the same locations that are available during Early Voting.

The resolution reflected the Miami-Dade Democratic Party’s firm belief that Miami-Dade County should add as many Early Voting sites as possible during this election and in all other elections in the future. For the 2020 General Election, the county should add the AmericanAirlines Arena as an Early Voting location.

In 2018, Eileen Higgins upset the establishment, and brought a fresh progressive voice to Miami-Dade government. She is running in 2020 against Republican Renier de la Portilla. Eileen represents county district 5, which encompasses Little Havana, parts of Miami Beach, Downtown, Brickell, The Roads, Silver Bluff, and Shenandoah.

MIAMI-DADE, FL: The Miami-Dade Democratic Party has endorsed Luisa Santos for School Board in District 9. 

Ms. Santos moved to Miami from Bogota, Colombia when she was eight and thanks to Miami-Dade County Public Schools, was speaking fluent English by nine. During her junior year at Coral Reef Sr. High, Luisa discovered she was undocumented. She persisted — starting her higher education at Miami Dade College and eventually becoming a proud U.S. citizen. 

Luisa worked in President Obama’s U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC while completing her studies in Political Economy and Education at Georgetown University. She knows teachers and school staff can change lives —  she saw it first hand teaching 4th graders and leading a mentoring and advocacy literacy program for historically underserved 3rd graders. Luisa eventually came home to Miami to launch her own business, Lulu’s Ice Cream, through which she has reimagined what students can learn in the workplace.

MIAMI-DADE, FL: On September 11, 2020, El Nuevo Herald printed an insert called “Libre” filled with vile, racist and anti-semitic claims. Among the many disgusting comments included in this insert were comparisons of American Jews to Castro’s “New Men,” accusations that American Blacks had betrayed Martin Luther King, and much more. While the publisher has apologized for these statements, leaders from Miami-Dade Democratic Party believe that the publisher must do much more to repair its relationship with the community.

Miami-Dade Democratic Party First Vice Chair Maria Elena Lopez stated, “Not only did El Nuevo Herald fail to vet the content of this insert in its pages, but they also failed to alert readers to its status as a paid advertisement. The readers of El Nuevo Herald were subjected to several pages of pro-Trump, racist garbage denigrating African Americans and Jews. This is an embarrassment to our vibrant, Miami-Dade communities and to the pluralistic society that we wish to see in our country. We condemn the statements that appeared in the pages of El Nuevo Herald and we call on the publisher of the paper to end their relationship with Libre and print a full and complete retraction.”

Democratic Executive Committee Member Jane Moscowitz added, “It is our obligation to speak out and condemn racism and antisemitism when we see it. El Nuevo Herald has done considerable damage to our community and the publisher must do more than simply apologize on Twitter.”