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Candidate for Florida governor David Jolly meets with Mason Podvin, 10, during the Florida Democratic Party annual Leadership Blue Gala at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida on Saturday, June 21, 2025.<\/p>\n
PHOTO BY AL DIAZ<\/p>\n
adiaz@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
The Florida Democratic Party invited a small group of hand-picked influencers to join their annual leadership conference at the Coronado Springs Convention Center this weekend to build online, grassroots momentum ahead of November\u2019s election \u2014 but clips of leading Democratic Senate candidate Alexander Vindman retreating from their cameras filled the internet instead.<\/p>\n
Content creators on Saturday posted various angles of the back of Vindman\u2019s head, showing him surrounded by staffers. They included captions like, \u201cAlexander Vindman refuses to be interviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing because a majority of my audience are Floridians that are going to be making a decision between Angie [Nixon] and him in a month, but par for the course I guess,\u201d said Gabi Torchia, who shared videos of Vindman rushing through the halls with the 42,000 followers of her artsyactivist Instagram account.<\/p>\n
The Florida Democratic Party said that Vindman never RSVP\u2019d to speak in the content creator lounge set up at their Leadership Blue conference, and a spokesperson said the retired Army lieutenant colonel\u2019s campaign team was extra vigilant due to problems with hostile figures on the right following, filming and sending him written threats.<\/p>\n
But Vindman\u2019s bumpy entrance at the party\u2019s banner training and mobilizing event exemplified what some party loyalists say has been nagging at them: The Democratic Party is moving full steam ahead with candidates that won\u2019t be able to build the kind of online and grassroots momentum the party needs to make Florida a swing state again.<\/p>\n
Vindman, a former National Security Council staffer, has a wide lead in fundraising in his Senate primary against Nixon, a progressive Jacksonville state representative. In the race for governor, former Republican Congressman David Jolly has the highest profile and the most cash on hand of any Democrat by far.<\/p>\n
In a national election cycle where the wind appears to be at Democrats\u2019 backs, two white men with conservative bona fides leading Florida\u2019s Democratic ticket aren\u2019t inspiring disaffected voters to drive a groundswell here too, some party members said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the party is missing the mark in terms of what voters want right now, right? I\u2019ll tell you what I\u2019ve heard: some people think that you need a white man to win,\u201d Miami state Rep. and gubernatorial candidate Dotie Joseph told the Miami Herald. \u201cAnd I reject that notion.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that she was having conversations after Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings dropped out, with people telling her that she should run because \u201cthere are a lot of people who are just not going to show up because of Jolly and they don\u2019t like his record. They don\u2019t like the idea of a former Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Florida](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MIA_8_TPS_Rally_MJO.JPG\" "\\"MIA_8_TPS_Rally_MJO.JPG\\"")
Florida State Rep. Dotie Joseph speaks during a rally at the Little Haiti Cultural Center on Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Miami, Fla. The event called for protections for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders and other immigrants after the Trump administration stripped many of them of legal protections against deportation. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n
Florida Democrats have a massive voter registration disadvantage requiring them to win crossover Republicans or a large majority of independent voters in November to win a statewide election. That goal was top of Vindman\u2019s mind when asked by reporters why he didn\u2019t talk to the content creators that were following him with cameras.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure what their interests are, but I\u2019m very much interested in talking to you all, answering your questions and figuring out how to make sure we bring the whole Democratic family together,\u201d he said behind closed doors to reporters. \u201cWe have to figure out how to be the big tent, how to bring in independents and Republicans. So those are the challenges in front of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Progressive candidates said the goal of winning over Republicans in November should not come at the cost of isolating some of their most energized voters now, including those on the left. And, they pointed to the last time Democrats ran a former Republican for governor \u2014 Charlie Crist lost to Gov. Ron DeSantis by almost 20 points \u2014 as a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to activate the base of the party. The base of the party, like Black voters, has been taken for granted for far too long. But we\u2019ve seen when there are candidates that inspire that base, we can really change,\u201d said Oliver Larkin, a candidate in South Florida\u2019s 25th District and member of the Democratic Socialists of America. \u201cFlorida\u2019s a very elastic state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other Democratic progressives say they\u2019re frustrated because they\u2019ve seen their membership expand, but don\u2019t feel embraced by the party or the candidates leading fundraising at the top of the ticket.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our members are incredibly just angry in general right now at the Democratic Party, but I would say, we\u2019re just out-organizing them, simply put,\u201d said the Democratic Party\u2019s Progressive Caucus chairman, Matthew Grocholske, pointing to the rapid growth of the number of local Florida progressive caucus chapters in recent years.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not only progressives who were unsure about the ability of Jolly and Vindman atop the Democratic ticket to drive out voters Democrats need in November. Rey Sordo, 25, is a first-time candidate running for the Miami state House seat held by Juan Carlos Porras. As a Cuban American, he said most people he talks to in his family and community have no idea who Jolly or Vindman are.<\/p>\n
Neither are from Miami-Dade, a county that has had wide partisan swings and favored Trump in 2024, but has shown indications of a swing back to the left \u2014 including in the December Miami mayoral race.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsidering the fact that they have the last name Jolly and Vindman and not something like Fernando, Sordo, or Vasquez, what have you, is already a setback for them as peculiar as that may sound,\u201d he said. \u201cLatinos tend to resonate with Latinos being reflected to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Downballot candidates strategize<\/p>\n
The Leadership Blue weekend\u2019s schedule was packed with panels on voter outreach for local county party members. Orlando Congressman Maxwell Frost, former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and other Democratic electeds gave rousing speeches at a closing gala over a dinner that included pats of butter etched with Mickey Mouse imprints.<\/p>\n
Candidates attended training sessions where they were told things like, \u201cYou hate data centers. Data centers are the worst. We do not like them,\u201d according to a Tampa state House candidate Ben Braver.<\/p>\n
Miami state senate candidate Richard Lamondin attended a similar session with Rick Wilson, former Republican and founder of the anti-Donald Trump Lincoln Project, where he said candidates were encouraged to be as outspoken as possible to connect with voters angry with the current presidential administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want to see fighters for a good reason because right now what\u2019s going on in this country is bonkers,\u201d Lamondin said, adding that while his campaign approach is more controversial, some candidates \u201ctrying to be fire and brimstone would come off as pretty cringe.\u201d<\/p>\n
But candidates were also grappling with their place with Florida\u2019s 2026 Democratic Party \u2014 and what their campaigns might look like if Jolly and Vindman land at the top of the ticket after the August primary.<\/p>\n
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Army Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, arrives at a closed session before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees on October 29, 2019, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Alex Wong TNS <\/p>\n
During a panel on outreach to Latino Voters, Juan Marcos Vilar, the president and executive director of Alianza Center in Orlando, pointed to a different statewide candidate, Cuban-American attorney general nominee Jos\u00e9 Javier Rodriguez, as a potentially mobilizing presence to reach Latino voters in Florida \u2014 including some that opted for Donald Trump in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an incredible opportunity this year having JJR on the ballot,\u201d Vilar told the room. \u201cYou\u2019re the kind of candidate that can inspire and put this whole state on fire for this party.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the two Democratic candidates in a primary ahead of a November election against Rep. Mar\u00eda Elvira Salazar in Florida\u2019s 27th District is former homicide prosecutor Robin Peguero. He said that he hopes his potential presence on the ballot in November will help a wider set of South Florida\u2019s very diverse range of voters see themselves on the party\u2019s ticket \u2014 even if two white men sit atop it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI should be the nominee to bring some balance to our slate here in Florida,\u201d he said. \u201cA younger voice, working class, son of immigrants, diverse, I\u2019m pretty much everything, given I\u2019m Dominican, Ecuadorian, Black. I have a little bit of all of it all, I speak Spanish. I want to help the party here in Florida show that we\u2019re diverse and that we care about the issues that matter to our communities\u201d<\/p>\n
He and some of the other candidates running down ballot said they didn\u2019t share concerns about Jolly or Vindman being uninspiring to Democratic voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Jolly was a bad representative for a long time. He truly was. And a lot of Gen Z people that I talk to do not like that he is a former Republican,\u201d Braver, the Tampa state House candidate said. \u201cBut then they look at his policy. They hear him speak, and he has very good policy. He speaks on it well. He speaks like he cares about the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost all Democrats the Herald spoke to were prepared to consolidate and vote blue no matter who the top of the ticket candidates are, and said they will continue to organize voters into November if Jolly and Vindman are at the top of the ticket. They said they don\u2019t see Democrats finding any common ground with the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, Byron Donalds, who is angling to become Florida\u2019s first Black governor.<\/p>\n
But in a state like Florida, Democrats need their base to show out in force for any hope of a statewide win. In his closing speech, Frost encouraged everyone to avoid the trap of demonizing those within their own party as Republicans try to frame Democrats as \u201cradical\u201d and \u201csocialists\u201d after a wave of wins by Democratic Socialists of America candidates in New York earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care if you\u2019re progressive I don\u2019t care if you\u2019re a moderate. I don\u2019t really care. They\u2019re gonna call you every name in the book,\u201d Frost said. \u201cPlease, Florida Democrats, don\u2019t take the bait. Every second you spend, saying, \u2018No, I\u2019m not,\u2019 is a second you\u2019re not talking about the issues that most Floridians care about.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was originally published July 20, 2026 at 5:30 AM.<\/p>\n