Weekly Talking Points – January 30, 2024
For questions or feedback about talking points, please contact Eden Giagnorio, Communications Director at eden@floridadems.org.
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January Recap
TOPLINE: As we prepare for the 2024 elections, Florida Democrats have started the year with a momentum shift.
- After being written off by the nation following the 2022 elections, Florida Democrats spent 2023 rebuilding and retooling in preparation for 2024 — racking up a key win in the Jacksonville mayor’s race and pushing HD 118 31 points to the left in a special election.
- Florida Democrats started this year by shocking the nation with the year’s first Democratic flip, electing Tom Keen in a House District 35 seat that went R+11 in 2022.
- Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans have done nothing but lose in 2024 — Ron’s union busting law couldn’t break the United Teachers of Dade, the Florida GOP is starting from scratch with an untested leadership team, and Ron’s presidential campaign couldn’t even make it past the New Hampshire primary.
- Florida Democrats are fired up and ready to compete from Pensacola to Key West to break the Republican supermajority and retire Rick Scott.
President Biden Visits Florida
On Tuesday, President Biden will visit Palm Beach County on a campaign fundraising trip. This is his sixth visit to Florida as president.
TOPLINE: President Biden knows that Florida is worth fighting for.
- With reproductive rights expected to be on the ballot and the U.S. Senate majority on the line, there is too much at stake to ignore Florida.
- Earlier this month, Florida recorded the first Democratic flip of 2024 in HD 35 — proving that Democrats can win in Florida with the right investments.
- President Biden’s early visibility in Florida shows that the Biden campaign is serious about Florida’s status as a battleground state.
Legislative Session 2024
Last week was week three of the 2024 Florida Legislative Session. The Legislature will be in session until March 8th.
TOPLINE: Florida Republicans continue to be out of touch with the needs and wants of Floridians.
- Instead of focusing on things that actually matter to Floridians, like healthcare, human rights, and the economy, Republicans in the legislature are busy advancing bills protecting Confederate monuments and accusing hard-working teachers of being “woke.”
- Meanwhile, Florida Democrats are focused on making lives better for Floridians — advancing bills to make drinking water cleaner, enhance career pathways for students, and providing property tax relief for disabled veterans.
Redistricting Case Update
The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to an appeals court ruling upholding Florida’s congressional maps, but the timeline laid out by the Court will keep the current maps in place for the 2024 elections.
TOPLINE: We urge the Florida Supreme Court to reconsider their timeline and make sure the redistricting case has a speedy resolution.
- Ron’s racially gerrymandered maps unfairly stripped representation from Black voters in Jacksonville.
- Targeting Black voters as a political tool is illegal and unacceptable in all cases, and our justice system has an obligation to rule on those accusations as quickly as possible.
Andrew Warren
Ron DeSantis is challenging an appeals court ruling which found that he violated State Attorney Andrew Warren’s First Amendment rights when he suspended him last year. The ruling could empower a federal court to reinstate Warren.
TOPLINE: The people of Hillsborough County deserve to have an elected State Attorney — not an appointed political puppet.
- Andrew Warren is a highly qualified and dedicated public servant who was duly elected not once, but twice to serve as State Attorney.
- Since illegally suspending Andrew over political disagreements, Ron has thrown out another state attorney and continued his assault on our courts.
- Ron’s made-up culture wars are losing at the polls and in the courts — from racially gerrymandered redistricting to his unconstitutional anti-LGBT laws.
- The modern Republican Party can no longer claim to be the party of small government — Ron’s actions are the type of government overreach that we expect to see in dictatorships.
- As we wait for Andrew’s case to return to the district court, Florida Democrats will continue to stand by him as he fights to serve out his term and challenge his illegal suspension in court.