MIAMI (NewsNation) — Florida is set to play a prominent role in the 2024 election as two of the state’s most famous residents, former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, are candidates in the race for the White House. Now, Democrats have seen this political divide as an opportunity to win back the state, launching a “Take Back Florida” tour.
Once a swing state, Republicans now have a more than 500,000 voter advantage over Democrats in the state — an edge that Democrats once held for years.
So now, Democrats are looking to flip voters back to their side during their tour, which includes $1 million in funding for a voter registration push. Vice President Kamala Harris has also visited The Sunshine State twice in the past two weeks.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said the reality is that everything went wrong in 2022. But this year, she said there is a new revived energy across the state, hungry for change.
She explained that DeSantis stepping out onto the national stage and the extremism from the Republican Party — the extreme abortion ban, permitless carry and going after voter rights — is showing and proving to Floridians that the GOP values are not who they are.
“This is not who we are as Floridians,” Fried said. “We are going to take back our state.”
Years ago, Democratic voters outnumbered Republican voters by 250,000. But now, GOP voters outweigh Democratic voters by double that number.
And that’s why Fried said Democrats are working across the entire state to flip back previous supporters and help new voters register.
“This is an opportunity for us to go back into the field and talk to new people who have moved here to the state,” Fried said. “Our youth has not really been engaged. We have an entire plan for our Statewide Youth Program.”
Fried also claimed that the uptick in Democratic interest is a sign that the Republican Party is imploding.
“You’re seeing a civil war, all throughout our state between legislators siding with Donald Trump and/or Ron DeSantis. And the reality is, this is an opportunity for Florida Democrats to hold the line to fight back and to show the rest of the nation,” she said. “We are going to be fighting back and the people of our state are going to be with us.”
Florida Republican Chair Christian Ziegler disagrees, saying Democrats’ efforts are just going to be wasted. He explained that the left is pushing too extreme of an agenda that most people are trying to get away from.
Plus, he said no amount of money could have their campaign gain momentum.
“Last cycle, they had a $2 million campaign toward voter registration, and they actually lost. I think it was about 140,000 registered voters on the Democrat side. So throwing money at this is not going to work,” Ziegler said.
In fact, he said none of the Democrats’ efforts are going to work until they get to the root of the problem, which Ziegler said is their “extreme agenda.”
“What they’re pushing is stuff like indoctrinating, sexualizing and mutilating our children. And they’re openly pushing that type of agenda throughout our state and throughout our country. Voters are turned off, and that’s why they’re fleeing the Democrat Party,” he said.
He said he believes that the Democrats are just going to throw money at a situation that they are not going to have a chance to do anything about.