Jesse Scheckner
As students and others arrive at Florida International University’s (FIU) Ocean Bank Convocation Center to see Vice President Kamala Harris speak Thursday afternoon, they’ll have an opportunity to register to vote.
Voters of Tomorrow, a national, Generation Z-led political nonprofit, is leading a voter registration drive outside the arena.
It’s part of an ongoing push to strengthen the young, progressive vote ahead of the 2024 election. And while Florida has shifted red in recent election cycles, it’s also home to one of the group’s largest chapters.
“That’s really because where we see attacks by the right directly on young people, we see increased chapter involvement,” Voters of Tomorrow National Press Secretary Jack Lobel told Florida Politics. “So, fortunately or unfortunately, we have great involvement in Florida, and we have lots of people participating in this event.”
Harris’ stop at FIU’s Modesto A. Maidique Campus in unincorporated Miami-Dade County is part of her one-month “Fight for Our Freedoms College Tour.”
She is to take part in a moderated discussion with students on a host of issues, including abortion rights, gun safety, climate change, LGBTQ equality, mental health and book bans. All are subjects front-and-center in an ongoing culture war spearheaded by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for President, and the GOP-dominated Florida Legislature.
The Florida chapter of Voters of Tomorrow is partnering with the Florida Democratic Party and People Power for Florida, a third-party voter registration organization, to sign up unregistered attendees. It conducted a similar drive Tuesday in Georgia during a visit Harris made to Morehouse College.
In Florida, due to a law the Legislature passed earlier this year constraining certain election activities, Voters of Tomorrow decided not to conduct the registration drive itself. The group was among several groups, including the Florida NAACP and Disability Rights Florida, that won a preliminary injunction in early July against the law.
“They’re really trying to prevent us from doing work,” Lobel said. “I think they’re scared, based on what they’ve seen in cycles, that Gen Z is going to overpower them.”
Voters of Tomorrow has chapters in more than 20 states and volunteer presences in all 50 states. In the leadup to the 2022 Midterms, the group says it contacted young voters more than 8.4 million times, including 170,000 times in Florida.
Miami-Dade is ground zero for Florida’s deepening red hue. Last year, DeSantis became the first Republican Governor other than Jeb Bush to win the county, which has long been considered a Democratic stronghold.
Many have attributed the flip to the inroads Republicans have made with Hispanic voters.
Thursday marks the third time this year Harris had come to the state, following two drop-ins over the summer to denounce Florida’s recently adopted Black history standards, which among other things require that students be taught how slaves gained skills that could be used for their personal benefit.
In a Sept. 7 statement accompanying the tour’s announcement, Harris stressed how important the Gen Z vote will be for her and President Joe Biden next year.
“This generation is critical to the urgent issues that are at stake right now for our future,” she said. “It is young leaders throughout America who know what the solutions look like and are organizing their communities to make them a reality. My message to students is clear: We are counting on you, we need you, you are everything.”
About 20 Voters of Tomorrow Florida chapter members will be at FIU Thursday. Lobel said the group will have a table outside the event to sign attendees up as they wait to go inside, and it expects attendance will be strong and fervent.
“You can expect long lines,” he said. “You can expect a pretty powerful speech from her. We’ve been tracking these events across the country, and I’m sure it’ll be the same story in Florida where despite all these attacks from the far right — or I’d say in some cases because of these attacks from the far right — young voters are going to be increasingly mobilized leading into 2024.”
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Anne Geggis of Florida Politics contributed to this report.
19 comments
PeterH
September 28, 2023 at 1:49 pm
Young woke voters are America’s future. If you’re tired of DeSantis’s anti-business and social engineering agenda here in Florida and Republican intransigence in Washington you need to register to vote. If you don’t vote your complicit in the destruction of our democracy!
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Dick Tracy
September 28, 2023 at 4:09 pm
Says Julia the scam bot.
Ben Franklin
September 28, 2023 at 7:55 pm
It would be hard to do more damage to our democracy than Pres. Biden. We are weaker economically, weaker abroad. People like PeterH don’t get it because they do not live in reality and are part of the problem not the solution.The poverty rate is increasing. Middle class is in decline. Being Woke is something our geopolitical foes came up with to divide us. I bet their paying Peter too. DeSantis is pro business you lackwit
PeterH
September 29, 2023 at 12:50 am
“ It would be hard to do more damage to our democracy than…..Donald Trump and FREEDUMB CLOWN CLONE RON DESANTIS”
There ….. I fixed it for you!
Rick Whitaker
September 29, 2023 at 2:10 am
everything you said is wrong. peterH is right,you don’t live in reality. trumpism has confused you beyond belief.
CommonCents
September 28, 2023 at 10:32 pm
“Democracy” is what the college students voted for in Venezuela in 1998-99, electing a progressive fascist by the name of Hugo Chavez… succeeded by a ‘democrat’ dictator named Maduro.
Ask any 40+ year old asylee from Venezuela how it worked out.
PeterH
September 29, 2023 at 12:52 am
Apples and oranges comparison!
Rick Whitaker
September 29, 2023 at 2:16 am
you are completely confused. what happened in venezuela 25 years ago is beyond your comprehension. you put a lot of terms out there in a meaninglessness fashion, much like thump and desantis
Jim1937
September 29, 2023 at 9:08 am
You need to move to LA.
Rick Whitaker
September 29, 2023 at 9:49 pm
does desantis run things in la ? if not, it might be a good move
Charlie Crist
September 28, 2023 at 7:52 pm
Young people are easily swayed by false democratic promises like Student loans and have been brain washed by the education system. But I ask you this are you better after Joe Biden and the answer is no. Democratic held cities and states are in decline. Their cities are crime infested hell holes. They can’t govern and are horrible at the economy. All their policies are ineffective pipedreams that are lowering your standard of living. DeSantis kept Florida afloat.
PeterH
September 29, 2023 at 12:54 am
Today’s GQP must be totally destroyed before it can rebuilt.
Republicans are America’s worst enemy!
Vote all Republicans out of office!
Rick Whitaker
September 29, 2023 at 2:22 am
peterh, what’s wrong with these wing nuts. you are right of course
Rick Whitaker
September 29, 2023 at 2:18 am
where do you people get this crap. wake up.
Joseph Archer
September 28, 2023 at 8:51 pm
Why vote. the republican party is a Potemkin party. The marionette on the other hand of the uniparty to make you think we are a democracy.
Fight for citizen govt thru govtbysmartphone where every citizen in a voting member in their community’s governing body and every community is free to govern itself, free from federal authoritarianism. No elections. And then, as each community is free to reflect the sentiments of its majority, society can have an open competition between ideologies to be judged by the litmus test of reality. maybe the best ideology dominate
Rick Whitaker
September 29, 2023 at 2:20 am
wtf you make no sense at all
My Take
September 28, 2023 at 9:33 pm
Any Trump-II is an assured catastrophe.
Vote AGAINST Trump.
Rick Whitaker
September 29, 2023 at 9:51 pm
to this day i can’t figure out why anybody ever voted for such a crazy man.
Comments are closed.