For Democratic State Representative Anna Eskamani, election night was a mixed bag. She won reelection for her Orlando-area seat, but watched in horror as Florida鈥檚 Democratic Party seemed to crumble around her.
Party operatives and insiders hoped Democrats would not only be able to carry Florida for Democratic presidential nominee 鈥� and eventual president-elect 鈥� Joe Biden, but they were hopeful of picking up seats in both the Florida Senate and the Florida House of Representatives.
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In reality, Republican President Trump won the state; the party lost five seats in the state House and one in the state Senate; and two incumbent Democrats were ousted from their U.S. Congressional seats in South Florida.
鈥淲e just got killed out there,鈥� said Eskamani.
Accessing the damage around her, Eskamani has become one of the most outspoken critics of the Florida Democratic Party, calling for increased investment on community-level organizing, and for state party leadership to step down.
鈥淲e have no field operation, we don鈥檛 value field,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e just think throwing slogans at people or photo ops at people will get them to come out and vote where the reality is that you have to earn trust and build it.鈥�
For her own campaign, Eskamani organized a grassroots core of election volunteers and consistent messaging on issues that she said simply matter the most to voters.
This time around, it meant talking about revamping Florida鈥檚 dysfunctional unemployment system. And it also meant pushing for better access to healthcare during a pandemic and supporting a ballot amendment that would raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2026 鈥� even as party leaders only gave it lukewarm support, at best.
That ballot amendment passed with more than 60% of the vote, far better than both Biden or Trump fared. Eskamani points to this as evidence that Democratic-leaning ideas win, but something with the campaigning has fallen flat.
鈥淵ou have to have values. You have to stand for something. For far too long, we've been very squishy. We've been nervous to take positions on important issues,鈥� said Eskamani. 鈥淎s a result, voters don't feel inspired to come out and vote.鈥�
In many ways Christian Ulvert agrees with Eskamani. He was a strategist and advisor for one of the few bright spots for Florida Democrats: he worked on the campaign of Miami-Dade鈥檚 mayor elect Daniella Levine Cava. It was technically a nonpartisan race, but Levine Cava won by campaigning as a progressive, with a strong focus on field operations and word-of-mouth grassroots support.
鈥淚t comes down to brand management,鈥� said Ulvert. "You can鈥檛 get people fired up about a campaign if you don鈥檛 stake out strong, popular positions."
He pointed to Hialeah as an example of a lost opportunity. The Latino-majority city voted overwhelmingly for Trump, but it also voted to raise the minimum wage, two votes that seemingly contradict each other.
鈥淧eople are voting for something that they feel is the right thing, but they're not equating that to the Democratic Party,鈥� said Ulvert. 鈥淭hat is our fundamental problem.鈥�
The Florida Democrats鈥� lack of a robust field operation stands in sharp contrast to the Republican operation in Florida, going back to before the pandemic. President Trump鈥檚 campaign had organizers on the ground in Florida since the 2016 election, and they never stopped organizing events, rallies and caravans.
Those efforts on the Trump campaign鈥檚 part gave them a major leg up when they honed in on the 鈥淒emocrats are socialist鈥� message that carried the campaign through the 2020 election. The message resonated in particular with Latino voters, many of whom left socialist countries before coming to the U.S.
鈥淵ou can't parachute in a couple of months before an election,鈥� Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign told SA国际传谋 before the election. 鈥淚t's good old fashioned ground game and good old fashioned hard work. Prior to the pandemic, we were out at events collecting voter registrations, a pandemic hit, and we had invested enough in our ground game and tech that we switched to a completely virtual campaign within twenty four hours. Then in June, we found safe ways to get back to in-person campaigning.鈥�
Democrats, in contrast, urged people to stay at home and largely avoid in-person campaigning during the pandemic. It was a crucial part of the messaging for the 2020 campaign, and with valid concerns. Yet in the 2020 races, it might have backfired politically.
The Republican efforts, knocking on doors and mobilizing voters both before and during the pandemic, paid major dividends.
Most notably, between the 2016 election and last month, Republicans flipped ten counties across the state from having more registered Democrats to having more registered Republicans. Those include larger counties like Polk and Volusia in Central Florida, along with smaller counties like Dixie, DeSoto, Wakulla, Putnam, Union, Lafayette, Glades and Jackson. Republicans used to have more than 2,000 fewer registered voters in Hendry County, on the edge of Lake Okeechobee, but been able to shrink the gap to a few hundred voters.
Democrats did not flip any counties to their advantage. In Seminole County they came close to breaking even, bringing the Republican advantage to fewer than 1,000 voters.
All of this is evidence of the state party lacking a piece of fundamental infrastructure, said Rep. Eskamani. And it left candidates vulnerable to attacks labeling Democrats as 鈥渟ocialists,鈥� she said.
鈥淚f you have a field game, none of those attacks stick as much,鈥� she said.
The simplistic, formulaic success of those attacks worry some Democrats.
鈥淚t worked,鈥� said State Senator Gary Farmer, a Broward Democrat. 鈥淚t looks like these non-Cuban Hispanic voters broke heavily Republican up and down the ballot, and that鈥檚 an issue we鈥檙e going to have to deal with going forward.鈥�
One way that the party can break out of it is by relying less on third-party groups for funding some state efforts and building up the party鈥檚 own infrastructure, suggested Farmer. He cited $11.8 million that the Super PAC Forward Majority at the last minute to help with races in the Florida House.
The branches of the state party that help Democrats running for the Florida Senate and the Florida House did not directly receive any of that money, as it went to other groups doing work across the state.
鈥淭hese groups do not coordinate,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have to realize that this fragmented system we have isn鈥檛 working. We have relied on them to our extreme detriment.鈥�
On the Republican side, far more of the heavy lifting 鈥� from voter registration drives, to voter outreach, education and organizing 鈥� is done by the party itself, in coordination with marquee campaigns.
Dwight Bullard, a former Democratic state senator and executive director of the left-leaning social justice advocacy group the New Florida Majority, said this part of the problem boils down to a chicken and egg question. His group helps with voter outreach and mobilization, in particular in poor communities.
鈥淎 lot of the love that we鈥檙e shown by outside donors has to do with them not respecting or valuing what the Democratic Party has done in the past,鈥� said Bullard. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a 365, holistic thing that has to be dealt with.鈥�
Throughout the 2020 election cycle, Bullard said it started to become clear that the Democratic Party was just absent in some places like South Dade, and it was not engaging in the kind of conversations that it should have been involved in.
鈥淲hat has been exposed in 2020 was 鈥� you basically hadn't talked to those folks in four years,鈥� said Bullard. 鈥淵ou left people to make the determination that Democrats are socialists. You left without defending that narrative, or eradicating that narrative. And so here鈥檚 where we are.鈥�
