It’s May 2020 in Florida
Dear Democrats,
We hope everyone is healthy and staying safe as we increasingly engage in our online and digital work across the state. A big Thank You to all who participated in the events, trainings, and phonebanks during the first Digital Weekend of Action this weekend, and to everyone who is organizing in your counties, caucuses, and clubs everywhere in Florida. It’s terrific to see all the work going on and to be able to participate “virtually” with many of you.
There are now six months to Election Day — 183 days to “E-Day” on November 3rd to elect Joe Biden and Democrats up and down the ballot — 183 days to the culmination of everyone’s hard work across the state, doing everything needed to turn Florida Blue. There is NO path to the White House for Donald Trump without Florida’s 29 electoral votes, and when we stop him in Florida, it’s game over!
Nearly four months into this coronavirus crisis, Trump has not delivered on his promises, failing to institute mass testing and provide our frontline workers with the PPE they need to manage the crisis. He has been absolutely chaotic in his response to the pandemic and, sadly, has not learned from his mistakes. After months of ignoring experts, shirking responsibility, and failing to rapidly scale testing, Trump has continually shown us that we cannot trust him to lead. Yet Governor Ron DeSantis has been following his lead every step of the way. Just like Trump, DeSantis did not spend time during his press conference thanking frontline workers or consoling families who have lost loved ones, but deriding the media and ‘doom and gloom’ scientific models that showed a no-action scenario. He claimed Florida would ramp up to 30,000-40,00 tests by early this week, but failed to explain how Florida can double testing in less than a week.
Additionally, Governor Ron DeSantis continues to make a mess with our state’s unemployment system while hundreds of thousands of Floridians lose their livelihoods. Worse, after repeated calls, he continues to ignore the need to have the legislature convene to expand unemployment benefits and lift arcane restrictions. Unemployment insurance is one of the most important safeguards to prevent economic collapse. The longer DeSantis and his Republican allies ignore the needs of Florida’s unemployed, the greater chance our state may fall into an economic depression.
We must hold Trump and DeSantis accountable, as we continue to do the work to send Trump packing to permanent retirement at Mar-a-lago, and send more Democrats to Tallahassee to stop DeSantis and the Republicans from continuing to wreak havoc on Floridians.
As of Monday, May 4, there are exactly 183 days — 6 months and 2 days — to November 3, 2020.
