Ryan Nicol
Progressive Turnout Project (PTP), a liberal political action committee, is announcing it will spend $350,000 on voter turnout to oust U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo from his congressional seat in November.
“When voter turnout is high, Democrats win elections,” said the group’s executive director, Alex Morgan. “Our team will be pounding the pavement every day between now and November 6 to replace Carlos Curbelo.”
Florida’s 26th Congressional District, which Curbelo represents, is seen as a pickup opportunity for Democrats in 2018. Curbelo won re-election in 2016 by a comfortable margin of nearly 12 percentage points. But with polling showing the national atmosphere tilting toward Democrats, the Cook Political Report has rated Curbelo’s seat as a toss-up.
That has motivated groups such as PTP to flood the race in an effort to turn the seat blue.
The group has an office in Miami and 11 staff members set to canvass the district during the summer and fall in an effort to motivate Democrats, whose enthusiasm and turnout has dropped during recent non-presidential election years.
“Face-to-face conversations are proven to be the most effective way to get out the vote,” said Morgan. “Our team is trained to focus on engaging in quality conversations with likely Democrats to ensure those voters have their voice heard in the next election.”
The campaign is part of an $8 million effort by PTP to flip 18 congressional districts across the country.
Curbelo currently faces a primary challenge from long-shot candidate Souraya Faas. Demetries Grimes and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell are running on the Democratic side.
The general election will be held November 6.
