FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Almost 100 paid workers. Millions of voters' cell phone numbers. And "subethnicity modeling."
All are part of the efforts touted Monday by national, statewide and South Florida Democratic leaders as they outlined their efforts to mobilize voters for the 2020 election _ even before the party has a presidential nominee.
The idea, said Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is to have an operation that's ready to turn over to the eventual presidential nominee.
Perez outlined the party's investment in people and technology for the 2020 elections during a visit to a storefront office in Oakland Park, where he spoke to a couple of dozen party workers hired to engage with potential voters, to get them registered to vote and, ultimately, to cast ballots in November.
Perez said a joint effort by the state and national Democratic parties already has between 90 and 100 staffers in Florida. At a similar point in 2016, he said, there were about two dozen staffers.
Terrie Rizzo, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party and the Palm Beach County Democratic Party, said eight offices like the one in Oakland Park are operating in Florida. Four more will open in coming days, she said.
Nationally, the Democratic Party is targeting states like Florida that are so close that they'll likely determine who wins the presidency. Several _ but not Florida _ are also home to close U.S. Senate races.
Perez said the party has spent heavily on technology, including buying "literally over 100 million cell phone numbers." Perez said that means party workers and volunteers now won't find they're dialing people who have died or moved. He put the number of numbers of Floridians in the party's possession as in the "millions."
Perez also said the party has the ability to do "subethnicity modeling" in Hispanic and Asian American communities.
"If you're trying to persuade Tom Perez to vote for the Democrats and you're here in Florida, you know the first question you want to ask: Is that Tom Perez from the Dominican Republic, is he from Puerto Rico, is he from Venezuela, is he from Cuba?"
In 2016, he said, "we just had Tom Perez voter." In 2020, he said, a Democratic caller will be able to, for example, engage a Venezuelan American voter on the party's policies and Trump's record dealing with the crisis in that country.
Emma Vaughn, Florida press secretary for the Republican National Committee, said her party's efforts are superior to the Democrats.
It's great that Tom Perez finally found the state of Florida, but unfortunately for the broke DNC, they will not be able to catch up to the RNC's permanent, data driven ground game and voter registration efforts," Vaughn said in a prepared statement.
