The Gen Z Dems Renaissance is changing the game in Florida. It's been a long time coming.
I’ve been working in Florida Politics in some capacity for about five years. My route was non-traditional, but now i’m 22, and I’ve worked as a vendor for over fifty campaigns, and been senior leadership on 15, ten of which have been victorious....
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The Gen Z Dems Renaissance is changing the game in Florida. It's been a long time coming.
by JacksonofFLCommunity (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Saturday, March 30, 2024 at 4:25:47p EDT
I’ve been working in Florida Politics in some capacity for about five years. My route was non-traditional, but now i’m 22, and I’ve worked as a vendor for over fifty campaigns, and been senior leadership on 15, ten of which have been victorious. Everywhere I went in the Florida Democratic party, I was always the youngest in the room- and when I wasn’t, I made friends with those peers quickly. That’s where I met now Congressman Maxwell Frost (he was just an organizer back then) and dozens of incredibly talented campaign staffers who have now left the state to work in DC, or other national campaigns. But I loved Florida, and I wasn’t planning on leaving.
There was a big problem, and it was one of the major diseases that caused our best and brightest young people in the state party to leave: our youth caucuses (for those who don’t know, High School Dems, College Dems, and Young Democrats are all their own organizations in Florida) were plagued by constant leadership changes, and a lack of funding. If you did well enough in one of the caucuses, you got noticed, and you got picked off to go work on a campaign or initiative, leaving your caucus behind- and the board/organization that much weaker for it. And this happened over and over again, so the organizations got increasingly weaker. Meanwhile on the GOP side, recruitment orgs like college Republicans and Turning Point USA were showered with merch and flashy conferences. Outsiders like myself even as we were thriving, didn’t have any incentive to bolstering year round youth organizing efforts. So sure enough, Florida has been trailing the nation in youth turnout, after a brief spike in 2018.
But, something started happening. As COVID drew to a close, Rhea Maniar took over FL High School Democrats, and it went from nearly defunct, to over 30 operating chapters in less than a year. I got a text about a controversial election in FL College Dems that was supposed to be nearly uncontested turned over by some guy named Jayden D’Onofrio, who wasn’t even in college yet, who had become the new president. One twitter DM and a phone call later, I found out the two occurrences weren’t a coincidence, and Rhea and Jayden served as Senate Pages together when they were only 14 and 16 respectively- and they had vowed to turn things around. Now that we weren’t flying solo in a political landscape that had a habit of stranding people in a lonesome ego-climb, a plan began to form. The perfect storm sunk in when party chair Nikki Fried tasked a number of us with joining an advisory committee to the party shortly after she assumed her chair role.
Granted, it took longer then we expected, but now that plan is in full swing. Enter- Florida Future Leaders, the joint PAC for Florida College and High School Democrats. Florida Young Dems still does their own thing technically, but I’m the treasurer, so everybody is effectively aligned. Florida is in a tough spot- a superminority in the State House, and in the State Senate. A lot of national resources have dried up, meaning recruitment has been at a low for 4 years. There aren’t the staff members to accommodate the needs for all the campaigns and organizations. Which is where we come in.
Our goal is two fold- hire and train organizers on college campuses so in 2024 they can turn out their peers on campuses, prioritizing downballot races, and education of the importance of local politics. Then, by next cycle, there will be dozens of experienced, trained and knowledgeable staff to take up the helm in races all over the state, while Florida Future Leaders finds and recruits the next generation behind them. We win wars with soldiers, not TV ad buys, and in Florida, there’s just not enough troops who know how to throw a grenade. No one is coming to save us. NextGen America doesn’t plan to compete in the state. The venn diagram between our team and Voters of Tomorrow FL is a circle. It’s on us.
It’s already off to a blazingly incredible start, seeing support from even the chair of the DNC, press coverage, and party leadership backing our efforts. Merch is flowing onto campuses, from branded condoms, to old fashion posters with new fashioned messaging. We funded the largest survey on young voter opinions and turnout preferences that our state has seen in recent history.
AND we’ve already hired half a dozen young people who are all being trained on how to organize their campuses. It’s moving, and it’s not going to disappear after 2024. This is built to last, and reconstruct how things are done at every level. Today we run the youth caucuses united. Who knows- maybe by 2028 we will run the state party united. It’s not a new org, just new action and energy.
Want to help? Throw us $5- it makes a real difference. Then, share this article so everyone knows, Gen Z is BACK in Florida.
Cheers,
Jackson McMillan
@JacksonofFl- X & Tiktok
Florida dems desperately need something to shake
