Scott Powers
The Florida Democratic Party announced Tuesday it is beefing up field operations with several promotions, including Brittney Geathers as director of African American outreach, and a slew of new hires, including Jes Cruz as training director.
With the hires, the party contends it now has the largest state campaign staff in the country, with 104 staffers, and contends it is larger than President Donald Trump‘s Florida reelection campaign staff.
“We said we were going to defeat Trump in Florida and we mean it. In 2019, we grew our voter registration edge over Republicans and have surpassed 5 million registered Democrats for the first time in history,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Terrie Rizzo stated in a news release. “Our amazing staff of 100 campaign professionals have mobilized more than 12,000 volunteers to complete 40,000 volunteer shifts — and we aren’t stopping until we take back our state and make Donald Trump a one-term President.”
The party is in the midst of what it calls a massive voter registration effort across the Sunshine State. Upon launching voter registration efforts in July of 2019, FDP registered 28 voters per day. In February, the Florida Democratic Party increased that average to 482 registrations per day — 50,000 registrations so far, on pace to collect 150,000 more registrations before the start of the general election in August.
The Trump campaign shrugged in response, noting that it has remained active on the ground in Florida since 2016, and already has engaged more than 13,500 grassroots supporters throughout the state, as well as hosted over 6,400 one-on-one meetups and trainings in English and Spanish.
“While the Democrats just found Florida on the map, Republicans have been investing and winning in Florida for multiple straight cycles. Welcome to the show,” said Trump Victory Spokesperson Emma Vaughn.
Among the promotions the Florida Democratic Party announced Tuesday:
— Geathers, as director of African American outreach. Gaethers was serving as community engagement director for the Florida Democrats’ Region 7, from Tallahassee to Gainesville. Before that, she had worked on or volunteered for local, state and congressional campaigns in Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina since 2010.
—Ella Coffee, as deputy director of political affairs. She had served as statewide deputy director in community engagement.
— Abigayil Yisrael, as regional field director for Hillsborough, Sumter, and Pasco counties. She was Northeast Florida community engagement director for Duval, Nassau, Clay, St. Johns, Putnam, Bradford, Columbia, Union, and Baker counties.
— Keith Hardy, as regional field and engagement director for the Panhandle region. He is being promoted from his position as community engagement director for the Panhandle region.
— Sam Dorr, as regional field and engagement director for Miami-Dade County.
— Harrison Angelis, as regional field and engagement director for Seminole and Volusia counties. He has been a Central Florida community engagement director.
— Jami Hudson, as regional field director for Southwest Florida. He has worked as a community engagement director for Southeast Florida.
— Alex Berrios, as regional field director for Palm Beach County. He has been a community engagement director.
— Brooke Christy, as regional field director for Orange and Brevard counties. She has served as the legislative analyst to the Florida Senate Democratic Office.
Among the new hires announced Tuesday:
— Cruz, as training director. She previously served as the deputy director of training at EMILY’s List.
— Miles Davis, as deputy political director. He previously served as legislative aide for Rep. Dianne Hart.
— Sam Koplewicz, deputy voter protection director.
— Herly Rosemond, as voter protection deputy director. During the 2016 and 2018 election cycle, she did voter protection work in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
— Cassie Baars. as deputy finance director. She recently served as deputy finance director on Julián Castro‘s presidential campaign.
— Conner Jure, as regional field director for Pinellas County. He was a field organizer in New Hampshire for New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker‘s presidential campaign,
— Jeffrey Pole, as regional field director for Broward County. Pole worked as a field organizer for the Florida Democratic Party in 2016 on the Hillary Clinton campaign.
