NYT: Democrats Can Win Florida in 2020 But they have to work a lot harder and they have to do it now

[Celerity]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/opinion/democrats-florida-2020.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

MIAMI — Thousands of supporters of President Trump packed the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday evening, as he officially began his campaign for re-election. Florida was a shrewd choice: Republicans know that the largest swing state is key to securing the White House for another four years.

“We’re out in the lead right now with money, organization, in every way,” Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, told reporters in Miami last month. Republicans see Latinos as their path to victory. That’s why the president named a Cuban-American to lead his state operation. And his administration’s sanctions against Venezuela and restrictions on Cuba are more about winning Florida than anything else.

Democrats, on the other hand, are habitually late. They assume demography is destiny and think their policies speak for themselves. Neither Joe Biden nor Pete Buttigieg mentioned Cuba or Venezuela when they attended fund-raisers in Miami last month, crucial issues to South Florida Latinos.

I run a voter mobilization organization called the New Florida Majority and I have long known that independent progressive groups do a better job of the nuts-and-bolts of politicking here — canvassing, voter registration, organizing — than the Democratic Party.

If the Democrats are serious about winning in 2020, they need to more meaningfully invest in organizing. And they should target people who have long been ignored by both parties, so-called low-propensity voters. In fact, these voters determined the outcome of the Democratic primary for governor in 2018 and brought the general election for that office down to the wire.

snip

[soryang]

1. I became aware of this "grass roots" effort in Florida and nationally...

...which appears to be focused on the Republican side which claims that Florida's US Senators and other high profile republicans favor Puerto Rican statehood and equal rights for Puerto Ricans. When I heard this presentation a couple of days ago in the local community, I was pretty surprised. Do Americans of Puerto Rican heritage or domicile really think that the Republican Party favors statehood for Puerto Rico? If so they should read John Nichols' article.

Mitch McConnell Calls Puerto Rican Statehood ‘Full-Bore Socialism’
Yet his own Republican Party’s platform endorses “the right of the US citizens of Puerto Rico to be admitted to the Union as a fully sovereign state.”
By John Nichols June 18

https://www.thenation.com/article/mitch-mcconnell-puerto-rico-full-bore-socialism/