A panel of Democratic party politicos told the Capital Tiger Bay Club in Tallahassee Monday that a recovery for their party in Florida could be decades away.
Democrats have continued to stumble in the state, where the party's active voter role trails Republicans by more than 1 million. President Donald Trump won the state by 13 points in 2024.
Leon County Democratic Party Chair Ryan Ray said he thinks one problem is that the party has strayed from its roots by appealing primarily to college-educated voters.
"I think that working people, people that work for a living, everyday folks, have been the base historically, and it still should be," he said.
But making that change will take time, said Democratic political consultant Beth Matuga.
"We should realistically be considering a 20- to-25-year plan to rebuild, not a 24-month plan to rebuild, she said.
Matuga, of Hard Ask Consulting, said Democrats have placed their hopes in top-of-the-ticket candidates the last two election cycles, failing both times. She thinks the party should instead focus on promoting Democratic candidates in local elections to build a bench.
Ashley Walker, a partner at Mercury Public Affairs, a political consulting firm, said more local partisan voter registration efforts are needed. She argued Democrats have spent too much money in the past on voter registration efforts on issues outside their party apparatus.
"We had cycles where $10 to $20 million was being spent on voter registration, but yet we were not moving the needle on Democratic registrations, and that is just simply unacceptable," she said.
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