By PAUL BLYTHE
We at the North County Democratic Club encourage and support the growing political involvement and activism of Generation Z in the Democratic Party. We think they could be a 2024 game-changer for Florida's misguided political heading of the past 20-plus years.
That's why we were so pleased to read this story in The Palm Beach Post about Florida Future Leaders, a political action committee formed by Florida College Democrats and Florida High School Democrats to turn out young voters and raise funds for community outreach to support young candidates.
"Youth leading youth is the most efficient thing that we can possibly do," Jayden D'Onofrio, the chair of Florida Future Leaders, told The Post. "We've lagged behind compared to other states in the last election. We have to step it up, and we're stepping up with this move to create a PAC that is led by youth, that is the youngest PAC in the state of Florida."
PAC targets FAU
And one of the PAC's first "steps up" is going to be at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where voter turnout in 2022 was only 22.8 percent on campus, which may have been a factor in Republican Peggy Gossett-Seidman flipping a Florida House seat that had been Democratic for years.
According to The Post, the goal for Florida Future Leaders at FAU in the 2024 general election is to turn out the vote for Democrats like Jay Shooster, a young Millennial who aims to challenge Gossett-Seidman in House District 91.
Shooster first faces a primary bout with Michaelangelo Hamilton, a 24-year-old FAU grad and self-described entrepreneur who just filed on Jan. 8 for the Democratic primary for the seat. Shooster filed for the seat on June 3, 2023 and had raised $129,009 in donations and spent $11,871 on his campaign as of the Dec. 31 reporting deadline, according to the Florida Division of Elections website. Hamilton, who made headlines in 2022 as a Boca area congressional candidate even though he was too young to serve if elected, has not been a candidate long enough to have to file a campaign finance report. Gossett-Seidman had raised $40,500 in contributions and spent $3,094 as of the deadline.
Shooster is a Boca Raton consumer protection lawyer who grew up in South Florida and graduated from the University of Florida before taking a law degree from the New York University School of Law. He told The Post his campaign is focusing on abortion rights and gun violence prevention, issues that rally young voters, according to national polling.
Similarly, D'Onofrio told the NCDC that his PAC will get out the youth vote for Democrats in District 91 and other House districts "by hiring campus organizing directors, providing resources to the Florida High School and Florida College Democrats, and building momentum around the abortion and marijuana ballot amendments."
D'Onofrio told the NCDC that because we showed some interest in the group and reached out.
Please support the PAC
When we say we support young people getting involved in politics, we aren't just talking about young people voting or volunteering for political campaigns. We support young people running for and winning office at local, state and federal levels, and we support the groups that support young people seeking elected office.
And we're not just talking the talk. We're walking the walk.
Our club president reached out to D'Onofrio about the possibility of supporting a young candidate in our club's area. I made an individual donation of $100 to the PAC after I first read about the group the other day. And we're asking you to do the same,
by going to the PAC's website, www.floridafutureleaders.com.
Then maybe, come November, we can make those future leaders our new and improved
leaders.
MORE YOUNG DEMOCRATS NEWS
Click here to save yourself a spot at the Feb. 18 campaign rollout of Gen Z candidate Thomas Witkop at the Jupiter Lighthouse as he enters the race to challenge Republican Brian Mast in Congressional District 21.
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Click here to read about when the nation's first Gen Z congressman, Democratic superstar Maxwell Frost, rallied Palm Beach County Democrats.