FDP Executive Director Highlights Voter Registration As Key To Victory In 2020
November 12, 2019
“Registering to vote doesn’t sound like an act of resistance, but it is. Registering your friends and neighbors to vote doesn’t feel like it will bring down a president, but it will. You might think knocking on doors and talking to other voters won’t change anyone’s mind, but you can.” – Juan Peñalosa
Tallahassee, Fl. –– Juan Peñalosa, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, published an opinion piece in one of the oldest LGBTQ news outlets in America, The Advocate, on the Florida Democratic Party’s strategy to register voters as a key component to winning the 2020 general election.
From The Advocate (emphasis added):
Instead of building a coalition of supporters, the president has spent the last three years demeaning and marginalizing the very voters he needs to win. Here in Florida –– the most diverse state in the country — with 29 electoral votes, President Trump hasn’t just insulted LGBTQ+ voters in Key West, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, he called neo-Nazis and KKK members very fine people resulting in Florida’s Jewish and African American communities recoiling in horror. And immigrant communities, which make up nearly a third of Florida voters, have been on the receiving end of the president’s hateful rhetoric and violent policies. From his “shithole countries” remark to separating children from parents he has alienated immigrant communities, like mine.
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If we’re going to win in Florida and take back the country, we need everyone that has been harmed by Trump’s policies, his broken promises, and his bigoted rhetoric to join together in a rainbow coalition to defeat this president.
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What does coming together to defeat Trump look like? It might surprise you, but it is about registering people to vote and having conversations about the issues that affect our communities.
Registering to vote doesn’t sound like an act of resistance, but it is. Registering your friends and neighbors to vote doesn’t feel like it will bring down a president, but it will. You might think knocking on doors and talking to other voters won’t change anyone’s mind, but you can. [The Advocate, 11/12]