To say that the recently concluded Florida Legislative Session was one of the worst in history would be an understatement. With strong Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate, a Governor in the mold of Trump, a conservative Florida Supreme Court and coming off a win in Florida for Trump, the GOP-led Florida Legislature felt even more emboldened to pass red meat legislation to fuel the upcoming midterm elections in 2022 and Governor DeSantis' expected Presidential run in 2024.

Want to take action? Click here:
https://www.mobilize.us/miamibeachdems/event/388592/

Among some of the most damaging bills that passed the legislature this session include:

• Voter suppression legislation that will make it more difficult to request mail ballots and return them amongst other things;
• Anti-protest legislation that cracks down on free speech;
• Ban on vaccine passports preventing companies from requiring proof of COVID vaccinations;
• Ban on transgender kids competing in girl's sports in K-12 schools that was sprung in the 11th hour of session;
• Fixes to the technology for the unemployment system without expanding eligibility or increasing weekly benefit amounts from a meager $275 per week;
• Preempting local governments on a variety of issues so that they are no longer able to decide what is best for their residents;
• Crackdowns on social media companies for removing political candidates' from the platform;
• Giving more public money to private charter schools;
• And too many others to list.

While all of this may seem gloomy, it should only energize Democrats. For far too long, we have not had the representation we seek in Tallahassee and have relied on moderate Republicans in the Florida Senate to be our lifeline and stop these bad bills.

It will likely become more difficult to request Vote-by-Mail ballots starting on July 2, 2021, and we need to use our time wisely by registering Democrats in Vote-by-Mail before the voter suppression law takes effect on July 1st. We need to harness our anger at a GOP-led Legislature that did not listen to the residents of the state, and focus on registering voters and talking to them about the issues that they care about while ensuring that we work to elect Democrats to the Florida House and Senate.

To that end, the Miami Beach Democratic Club is hosting phonebanks to encourage Miami Beach Democrats to enroll in Vote-by-Mail before July 2nd. The phonebanks are taking place on May 22, June 16 and June 19. RSVP for one (or more) of the phonebanks by clicking below:

https://www.mobilize.us/miamibeachdems/event/388592/

We hope you will join us in the fight.