As soon as President Trump recommended that states should shut down for a brief period to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the Republican Party of Florida switched gears and in a 24-hour span flipped all efforts to a virtual operation. We never missed a beat.

The switch has been an astonishing success and I wanted you all to know.

The RPOF’s Trump Victory team has hosted more than 430 virtual Trump Victory Leadership Initiative Trainings, and volunteers have made more than 4.4 million calls from the safety of their own homes — just in the past few weeks. We’ve engaged 18,750 grassroots supporters throughout Florida, and hosted about 10,400 one-on-ones, MAGA Meet-Ups and TVLI training sessions — everything virtual and safe.

Further, we are running a digital campaign hitting the 95,000 people who recently moved to Florida, many of whom have not registered yet, and we’re seeing success with their engagement. Now we’re preparing another digital campaign to follow up with those people to make sure every last Republican gets registered. Then we’ll be running a rolling campaign to make sure they vote by whatever method they desire.

This RPOF team throughout the state is hyper focused on keeping Florida red and re-electing President Trump in November. There’s never been a greater sense of urgency than what we continue to see from the media and Democrats. We have our eye on the election, and we’re already far ahead of the Florida Democrats’ efforts because our operation has never rested on picking up voters and getting them to the polls on election day. Our digital operation was already so strong that when the shutdown came, the transition was quick and smooth.

Field staffers have always been the backbone of the Party. They create that close contact with voters and motivate them to get out and support Republicans. They have proven themselves nimble and creative in finding ways to reach voters during this time.

I’m simply in awe of our team throughout the state for how quickly and effectively they adapted to the abrupt new requirements, and the awesome results we’re seeing. And they’ve done it so quietly and completely that very few people are even aware of the size of the operation we’ve created. But I wanted you to know this has been a rousing success and continues to increase those numbers every day.

We all know the stakes in the coming months. Gov. Ron DeSantis is doing outstanding work in guiding our state through this crisis. Measured by actual results and not media headlines, based on all the numbers still coming in, Florida has fared much better than was expected, and much better than other states that are younger, smaller and less diverse. That is real leadership and every Floridian should be proud of our Governor, despite the ugly partisan hit jobs.

Gov. DeSantis’ successful handling of this pandemic along with President Trump’s solid leadership and vision to allow states to make their own decisions about what is best for their residents, may well help us get President Trump reelected. That is our goal and I’m thrilled at how well this team is doing.

Joe Gruters
Chairman
Republican Party of Florida