New Democratic headquarters opening in Broward County to spur voter turnout

Democrats at the top of the ticket for the General Election next month are coming to Broward County to open a center aiming to unleash Broward County’s demographic might at the ballot box.

U.S. Rep. Val Demings is slated to headline the opening of the LGBTQ+ Get Out the Vote Center in Wilton Manors. Karla Hernández, the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor, is expected to join her along with the Chief Financial Officer Nominee Adam Hattersly, Attorney General Nominee Aramis Ayala and Miami Sen. Jason Pizzo.

The Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus and the Dolphin Democrats are sponsoring this center, which will also serve as the Broward County headquarters for the campaigns of Demings and Democratic gubernatorial Nominee Charlie Crist. It’s also going to serve as the distribution point for information and materials about Democratic candidates up and down the ticket.

As polls show Democrats are the underdogs in most of the General Election’s big races, Broward County is more crucial than ever.

“This is where we’ve had the best chance to run up the score for decades,” Hattersley said.

The county has nearly 1.3 million voters, making up nearly 9% of the state’s electorate and 47% are Democrats. In raw numbers, Democrats have more than  double the number of registered voters than Broward County Republicans.

But the county’s voter turnout has consistently been weaker than the state average. Hattersley said that he’s thinking it’s likely that voters who have not shown up will do so this year, however.

He pointed to Alaska electing a Democratic U.S. Representative, a Democrat winning a Special Election in a swing New York State district and a surprise turnout for abortion rights in Kansas.

“I think this year is different — nobody knows what’s happening in politics,” Hattersley  said. “I think the issues are going to motivate people to vote and vote for the issues that matter to them.”

If voter turnout in Broward County increased by 2% more than the last Midterms, it would mean 95,450 more Broward County voters.

That would have been enough to close the 10,033-vote margin that put Republican Sen. Rick Scott in office over Sen. Bill Nelson, or the 33,683-vote margin that put Gov. Ron DeSantis over Andrew Gillum.