I’m running for FDP Chair for one reason, and one reason only: to build a party that will win more races up and down the ballot.
Everything we care about as Democrats in Florida – every cause, every issue, and every core value is dependent on one thing: winning more elections. We will not, and can not, change the direction of our communities and our state without it.
When I served as Chair of the Miami-Dade Democrats, we elected Democrats up and down the ballot. There wasn’t any magic to this work: we raised money, hired organizers, and empowered them to do the critical work of organizing their communities. We also had a strong multilingual communications plan, with rapid response. I had the vision to build a bench in city councils and gain control of the County Commission and eventually win the Mayor’s seat. We recruited strong candidates and ran a coordinated campaign to turn out Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. We won the races we targeted, got to a majority of Democrats on the county Commission, and have remained in control since. We even recruited a longtime community leader to take on an entrenched Tea Party incumbent county commissioner, and we won. That leader is now the Mayor of Miami-Dade County.
I know what we are up against. I served in Tallahassee for five years under Ron DeSantis, fighting every day against his demagoguery and all-out assault on Black communities, immigrants, working families, LGBTQ youth, public education, reproductive rights, and so much more. I’m also clear-eyed about the Republican opposition: I’ve been the target of their coordinated misinformation efforts, and even the victim of Russian hacking. I know they will stop at nothing to stay in power, regardless of the harm they cause to our democracy and the communities that need our help the most.
The mountain in front of us is steep. We need to be smart and strategic, and we need to buckle-up for the hard and unglamorous work ahead.
Our state party is at a critical juncture, and we must pave a new way forward — together. We must completely rebuild and reimagine our party from the bottom up. We must reestablish a fully functional Florida Democratic Party grounded in our shared values.
As the next Chair, my plan won’t be complicated. We will make the FDP laser-focused on the work that matters and will help us win elections, just as we did in 2008 and 2012 under President Obama.
This is about engaging communities, building trust, investing in programs we know work, and deploying new strategies in areas that desperately need new thinking such as candidate recruitment and training, media engagement, fundraising, data analytics, and much more. I am committed to doing it right— to build our party not just for the next cycle, but for four years, for six years, and with a clear vision towards the next redistricting eight years from now.
Yours in the fight,
Annette