Gen Z Florida Democrats launch PAC to flip seats in 2024, ‘build a renewed bench’ for future cycles

Florida’s younger Democrats want to make 2024 a big chapter in the party’s comeback story, and they’ve got a new PAC up and running to make it happen.

It’s called Florida Future Leaders, and its goal is to energize, mobilize and recruit high school and college progressives to turn back a rising red tide in the Sunshine State.

“We’re going to pave the way for Democrats to build a renewed bench and engage younger volunteers across the state to develop a historic college-organizing plan,” said Jayden D’Onofrio, who is leading the PAC and chairs the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) Youth Council.

“We really want to confront and break the Republican state supermajorities we have here through our programs. Especially in the last election cycle, Democrats lost three or four House seats and one Senate seat simply because youth voter turnout was so bad. And help isn’t coming on its own.”

The last cycle in 2022 was indeed a bloodbath for Florida Democrats, who lost their only seat in the Cabinet and saw their already sizable disadvantages in the Senate and House grow by four and seven seats, respectively.

A Tufts University analysis of Midterm turnout shows Florida had the ninth-worst participation rate among voters 18-29 among all U.S. states. Just 22.4% of Generation Z voters in Florida turned out at the polls in 2022 — a 9.1% decrease from two years prior.

That decline disproportionately hurt Democrats and progressive causes with which younger voters side more than most of their generational counterparts. Gen Z adults today account for 1 in 6 eligible voters, and 43% of them identify as liberal — the highest rate of any generation, according to a Public Religion Research Institute survey.

To reverse course, D’Onofrio said Florida Future Leaders will hire around half a dozen full-time college campus organizers at “key colleges and universities” across the state and supplement their efforts with other “statewide paid positions” dedicated to digital outreach.

Certain schools like the University of Central Florida, Florida Atlantic University and Florida State University will take priority, but the initiative aims to have a presence at every institution of higher learning.

“Candidates and the party have historically had problems reaching out to youth through traditional means, and who better than youth to turn out youth? Who understands youth more? That’s really our mindset going into this,” he said. “If we had even half of the college students turn out to vote from UCF, FAU, FAMU and FSU, we would have flipped or held those seats.”

The PAC also plans to run awareness campaigns on hot-button issues about which younger voters are especially fervent, from potential ballot questions to legalize recreational marijuana and guarantee abortion access to policies the GOP-dominated Legislature passed in recent Sessions to suppress LGBTQ inclusion in public schools, loosen gun restrictions and ban diversity, equity and inclusion spending by state-run higher education institutions.

Gen Z students responded to several of those measures with mass walkout protests.

Skyrocketing living costs in Florida will also be front-and-center in the PAC’s outreach efforts.

“We need to turn out every student possible on those issues, because they matter most to young voters,” D’Onofrio said. “We’re going to engage local candidates with their youngest community members — members who were oftentimes hit hard in the past few Legislative Sessions — and through Florida Future Leaders lay the groundwork for a sustainable youth turnout machine.”

Compared to their opponents across the political aisle, Florida Democrats have run at a cash deficit for years. While there’s no overnight fix, D’Onofrio said the group will minimize the imbalance by engaging with the state party, every candidate and all the organizations that work with them while also running the tightest of ships.

“One of the main reasons why funding has disappeared in a lot of different ways for many organizations and candidates is because there’s been a lack of efficiency,” he said. “We’re going to showcase efficiency and a true ground game that’s going to matter not just for this election but for many to come. Donors are going to be impressed by that.”

Other principal Florida Future Leaders figures include Treasurer Jackson McMillan, Florida College Democrats President Alexis Dorman, Florida High School Democrats Chair Rhea Maniar and Logan Rubenstein, an anti-gun violence advocate who will advise the PAC.