Josh Weil Is Taking On Ashley Moody— And He’s Got A Real Plan To Rebuild Florida’s Democratic Muscle

When Josh Weil ran earlier this year in a special House election in rural Florida that I'm sure you remember, it wasn’t supposed to matter. But Josh and his unabashedly progressive agenda enthused voters and small donors and he raised enough money to go up against Elon Musk and other Republican fat cats behind racist state Senator Randy Fine. Josh out-performed Democratic expectations and showed a path forward for first-time candidates with minimal institutional support. Needless to say, the New Dems who run the DCCC ignored his race— other than when they were talking it down to the media.

But now he’s back— this time running for the U.S. Senate seat that DeSantis appointed one of his flunkies— former state Attorney General Ashley Moody— to, when Rubio moved on to become an apologist for Trump’s bizarre foreign policy agenda. And Moody is a perfect symbol of everything broken in Florida politics: a career prosecutor turned far-right political operative who’s weaponized her office to carry water for DeSantis and Trump and fight losing, expensive culture war battles on Florida taxpayers’ dime. She signed Florida onto the Texas-led lawsuit trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election— an act of open sedition. She’s led the charge against reproductive rights, attacking abortion access and pushing for a total ban with no meaningful exceptions. She tried to block student loan relief, supported the state’s ban on gender-affirming care, and sued the Biden administration over anything that smelled like decency or equity. Josh, in his usual no-BS fashion, had this to say to us today about Moody’s priorities:

“Floridians don’t want another war in the Middle East. Once again, Ashley Moody is putting her loyalty to Trump over doing her job. Congress needs to reassert its authority and put an end to this madness. Every dollar spent on bombing Iran is another one not being spent to fix our problems here at home. What happened to America First?”

In the post below, Josh shares what he learned face-to-face with Florida voters— especially in red, rural places Democrats have abandoned— and what it’ll take to build something real in this state. It’s not a theory. It’s not a memo. It’s a plan— and it’s already in motion. If you want to help fund something that actually touches real voters, you know what to do.

Lessons Learned From 600,000 Knocked Doors In Deep Red Florida: How We Win Back The Working Class

-by Josh Weil

So, about 3 months ago I was a candidate in a special election in Florida, we raised a few bucks, knocked on a TON of doors (600,000+ + 4 million phone calls), and turned out an electorate where 80% of the independent voters in a rural red district voted for the Democrat. I’m not here to harp on the past, I want to tell you what I’ve learned knocking thousands of doors myself in rural Florida, so hopefully you can apply my experience. 

1. When people are struggling, it’s not medicare for all, it’s medicare for YOU. 

The vast, VAST majority of voters aren’t reading the news like you and me. They don’t see a meaningful difference between Democrats and Republicans, and they probably haven’t heard of most of them. They are constantly trying to make it through the day. Nearly 60% of Floridians are living dangerously close to the poverty line. They don’t have time to educate themselves on the hot button issue of the day, and are just trying to keep it together. Saying that you want their tax dollars to help other people just isn’t going to work. Empathy is a luxury when survival is daily. You have to tell them how you are going to help THEM. It’s not “improve education”, it’s pay your kids teachers more so your kids can get into better colleges. It’s not infrastructure and public transportation it’s less time in traffic FOR YOU.

That simple switch really makes all the difference, for both checked out Democrats and Independents/Republicans.They want to know: how are you going to make my life better. It’s not selfish, it’s survival. Trump did it, and he didn’t even know what the word groceries means. But there sure were billboards on the interstate that said “cheaper groceries.” Don’t talk policy, talk about their lives and how you are going to change it.

2. People think all politicians are evil, and we can’t try to out-purity the GOP. 

My opponent was one of the most hated Republican elected officials in Florida. In a 7-11 I got approached by members of local legislative staff who told me that they didn’t like him, and were voting for me. Anything bad you’ve seen come out of FL in the last 6 years, he’s probably been a part of it. We ran ads to tell them exactly what kind of person he was. They ran ads telling them about my past. They tuned out. Politics as usual. Voters assume that if there’s not something bad in a candidates past, it just hasn’t come out yet, and that all politicians are corrupt slimeballs. Which means we can’t sound like politicians, we need to sound like well, real people. I will never forget being invited inside to have a beer with a voter after I helped him unload his groceries, and opened the conversation by complimenting him on his Wolverine tattoo and talking Marvel. Registered independent, told me he normally votes Republican. He voted- we checked. We have to run real people, not whoever the polished plastic ken doll the establishment is selling this week. When people are hurting, they want people to represent them who are also hurting, because we know what needs to be done to fix it.

3. Actually… y'know, talk to people!

In Florida, the vast majority of doors have not been knocked since the Obama era, especially in the red areas (so most of the state). That means there are young people who have not heard from Democrats, literally ever, and Democrats who don't know they have allies out there, and are not alone. If we EVER want a shot at winning Florida or the working class back ever again, we have to actually go talk to them, where they are, and not just 3 days before the election. And not just once either! Circle back to the doors who didn’t open, to the folks who were on the fence. That takes manpower, and it can’t come all from paid staff. I think the Zohran for NYC campaign has given an amazing model of what happens when you give people something they actually want to get behind. They actually volunteer again! Anti-MAGA just isn’t something that gets a 24 year old fired up to go knock doors. They’ve known nothing but MAGA and Dem dysfunction. To them, it’s all the same. But being able to afford a home and build for their future? That’s something they can actually get behind, and want to spread the message about. We have to get there, all over the country. The current Anti-MAGA volunteer base is exhausted. We have to fire them back up, and bring in fresh faces, and we do that with a pro-worker message. 

So where do we go from here? 

We’ve had at least 300,000 Democrats who have fallen off the voter rolls due to inactivity. The party is counting on volunteers to manually phone bank through those, and well, that’s going about as expected. We need to quickly text and call through that list with staff so that we can grab the lowest hanging fruit and bring it back to the table. I firmly believe though that these are people, not just numbers. They aren’t a monolith of impossible voters. A chunk of them will just need a reminder, but some will need to be told there’s something to vote for again. It’ll also need to be in multiple languages. 

At the cheapest, that will cost about 100k. We can’t wait till the general to do this, until I’m the nominee, and by then it will be way too late. That’s what I’m fundraising for right now, and I believe we can get this done quickly.

After that, we have to start getting ready for the largest multi-platform voter registration drive in the state’s history. It isn’t enough to show up at busy places. We have to seek out the unregistered voters. Upside? modern technology presents us with unique solutions to that. We can get the data, than match digital advertisements on platforms those voters engage on, texts, etc, all while running in person field operations. Downside, again, really ridiculously expensive. Like, we don’t even quite know how expensive, but millions plural.

And after that… well, see point number 3. We have to go get the voters at their doors, and deliver the message. In every congressional district in the state. Again expensive, but not impossible.

It is nonsense that a full time job does not give us enough to build for our future. Literally one generation ago, that was the norm. Both parents should not have to both go to work so their children can eat. This is not radical. It is time for people to remember that, and we have to wake them up.

So, that’s the plan.

Thank you for reading, I hope you got something out of it, and I hope you’ll get aboard.

Pitch in to our first fundraising goal (for the re-registration): 

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