A.G. Gancarski
With early in-person voting beginning as early as Monday in parts of Florida, the two major party gubernatorial candidates believe they will turn out their base.
On Friday afternoon, the campaign of Republican Ron DeSantis released its voter engagement numbers, which paint the picture of a campaign that found its moorings in recent weeks after a rocky post-primary launch.
The campaign has 30 field offices with 6,201 volunteers, per the release. And they are apparently working.
“Since October 1, the campaign has had tremendous success, with 578,607 doors knocked and 561,471 phone calls made,” the media release asserts.
Worth noting: Oct. 1 was just a few short days after campaign manager Susie Wiles took over operations, which one person close to the campaign described as being like having an adult in the room.
Democrat Andrew Gillum, despite an 11-day sabbatical from the trail, found his stump speech gear quickly in Jacksonville, where he told Florida Politics in an exclusive interview that he wasn’t worried about engaging his voters — who include NPAs and “disaffected Republicans.”
There wasn’t a single poll in the primary that showed me leading or winning,” Gillum noted. “But we won it. And we’re going to win the [general election] the same way.”
“The polls are capturing something, but they aren’t capturing the immense energy on the ground. The reason that people didn’t see us coming is because we had 150,000 voters who voted either for the first time or hadn’t voted in the last three elections,” Gillum said.
“We’re going to double that number in the general election. We’re going to win the race for Governor. And we’re going to do that by bringing more voters to the polls,” Gillum said.
Field made the difference in August for Gillum, who powered past Gwen Graham with the assistance of a variety of third-party groups and their organizers and activists. Gillum is saying to expect even better this time out.
Conversely, field made no difference in the Republican primary, as DeSantis overcame Putnam’s team of party regulars and activists with a TV-heavy, Trumpified appeal.
His message Friday: his team will be competitive on the ground down the stretch.
