The New Florida Majority (formerly New Florida Majority¹) was a left-of-center advocacy group which worked to expand voting in Democratic-leaning demographics to break the Republican-majority government in Florida and win the state’s national electoral votes for the Democratic Party. It primarily targeted low income and ethnic minority communities with street-level organization and outreach. The organization also advocated for pro-abortion legislation, environmentalist climate change policies, and criminal justice reform. ²

The New Florida Majority had ties to radical-left organizations and people. New Florida Majority was a member of State Power Caucus, a radical-left-influenced network of community organizing and advocacy groups. ³

On January 20, 2021, the organization merged with community organizing group Organize Florida to create Florida Rising Together, a left-of-center advocacy organization focusing on voter mobilization. ⁴

Radical Left Influence

New Florida Majority was a member of the State Power Caucus, a collection of at least 20 similar organizations including California Calls, New Virginia Majority, Washington Community Action Network, and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth working on organizing and voter registration among left-leaning blocs in states throughout the US. ⁵ Jon Liss, a career left-wing organizer and radical-left ideologist, co-founded the Caucus. ⁶

New Florida Majority’s longtime executive director was Gihan Perera, before Perera left to become a program officer for the left-wing Ford Foundation. ⁷ Perera had led Miami Workers Center before the formation of New Florida Majority; in that role, he had told the radical-left strategy and ideology outlet Organizing Upgrade that praised the election of President Barack Obama as “a possibility to go back on the offensive” for a number of radical-left causes. ⁸

Badili Jones was a New Florida Majority political and alliance officer from 2012 through 2013, according to his LinkedIn page. ⁹ According to an author-editor biographical stub at the radical-left publishing house Common Notions, Jones was a former member of numerous radical-left organizations, including the February 2^nd Movement, the Revolutionary Workers League, the Communist Party USA, and the African Liberation Support Committee. He was listed as a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (now Liberation Road), a revolutionary Communist group. ¹⁰ In 2017, Jones wrote an article for Liberation Road arguing that the impact of Hurricane Irma on South Florida proved the need for revolutionary socialism and left-wing organizing. ¹¹ He further wrote a discourse on community organizing in light of the Marxian dialectic for Liberation Road. His authorial biography described Jones as a “Marxist socialist.” ¹²

New Florida Majority president Andrea Cristina Mercado was a co-founder of the labor activist group National Domestic Workers Alliance. A career left-wing activist, Mercado had previously worked for Miami Workers Center, the San Francisco-based left-wing organizing group Mujeres Unidas y Activas, and for a Brazilian group campaigning against international trade. ¹³ She is currently listed as the executive director of voter mobilization group Florida Rising Together, which was created from the merging of New Florida Majority with community organizing group Organize Florida on January 20, 2021. ¹⁴

Methods

The New Florida Majority relied on three strategies: mobilize, educate, and advocate. ¹⁵

Mobilization work was accomplished by rallying and creating street-level local organizations to increase voter awareness and collect petitions.

Education was managed by an independent but closely-affiliated 501(c)(3), New Florida Majority Education Fund, which advocates for government policies to fight climate change, reform the criminal justice system, and expand voting rights. ¹⁶ Unlike New Florida Majority, the Education Fund can receive tax-deductible donations.

Advocacy consisted of lobbying and protesting the Florida Legislature to promote policy goals, including higher minimum wage laws¹⁷ and housing subsidies. ¹⁸

Voter Legislation

Amendment 4

In 2018, Florida enacted Amendment 4 through a statewide ballot initiative. Amendment 4 restored voting rights to 1.2 million convicted felons in Florida, of whom an estimated 52% were Democrats, 33% Independents, and 14% Republicans. ¹⁹ New Florida Majority worked with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition to collect 1 million signatures to get the Amendment on the ballot. ²⁰

In June, 2019, the Florida legislature enacted SB 7066, a bill which required Florida felons to pay all fines and fees related to their sentencing before their voting rights can be fully restored. The New Florida Majority helped challenge the bill in court,²¹ and a judge ordered it temporarily suspended in October. ²² The Florida Supreme Court provided an advisory opinion in January 2020 that supported the Governor and Legislature’s opinion that financial obligations could be considered a term of sentencing under Amendment 4. ²³

Hurricane Matthew Voter Registration Extension

In the wake of Hurricane Matthew’s landfall in October, 2016, the New Florida Majority supported the Florida Democratic Party in suing then-Governor Rick Scott (R) to extend the voter registration period. ²⁴ Scott was ordered by the courts to extend the registration period by one week, granting an estimated 108,000 Floridians the opportunity to vote. ²⁵

Funding

In July 2020, it was announced that the Sandler Foundation would be donating $200 million to “racial justice groups” in response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests, and New Florida Majority was one of the eight grantees named. The funds will help recipients advocate for left-wing policies in battleground states and create long-term constituencies that support these issues. ²⁶

Florida Rising Together

On January 20, 2021, New Florida Majority merged with Orlando-based community organizing group Organize Florida to create voter mobilization nonprofit Florida Rising Together. ²⁷

1. “The New Florida Majority.” Ballotpedia. Accessed January 27, 2020. https://ballotpedia.org/The_New_Florida_Majority.
2. “Our Legislative Priorities for 2020.” The New Florida Majority. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://newfloridamajority.org/our-legislative-priorities-for-2020/.
3. Liss, Jon. “Seize the Moment: Paving the Road for a Mass Left ” Organizing Upgrade.” Organizing Upgrade, July 23, 2019. https://organizingupgrade.com/seize-the-moment/.
4. New Florida Majority. “Two Anchor Organizations of Florida Civic Engagement Infrastructure Announce Merger to Increase…” Medium. Medium, August 4, 2020. https://medium.com/@newfmcomms/two-anchor-organizations-of-florida-civic-engagement-infrastructure-announce-merger-to-increase-6f75183f2764.
5. Liss, Jon. “Toward a Movement 40 Million Strong.” Portside, June 24, 2019. https://portside.org/2019-06-24/toward-movement-40-million-strong.
6. Liss, Jon. “Toward a Movement 40 Million Strong.” Portside, June 24, 2019. https://portside.org/2019-06-24/toward-movement-40-million-strong.
7. “Gihan Perera.” Social Transformation Project. Accessed January 27, 2020. http://stproject.org/lio_directory/gihan-perera/.
8. “GIHAN PERERA: Get in the Game.” Home – Organizing Upgrade, November 30, 2009. http://archive.organizingupgrade.com/index.php/modules-menu/community-organizing/item/81-gihan-perera-get-in-the-game.
9. “Robert ‘Badili’ Jones.” LinkedIn. Accessed January 27, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/badilijones/.
10. “Finally for the News: The Printed Legacy of the U.S. Radical Left, 1970-1979.” Common Notions. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://www.commonnotions.org/finally-got-the-news/.
11. Jones, Badili. “Hurricane Irma: The Intersection of Race, Class, and Ecology.” Liberation Road, September 19, 2017. https://roadtoliberation.org/hurricane-irma-intersection-race-class-ecology/.
12. Jones, Badili. “Dialectical Historical Materialism for Community Organizers.” Liberation Road. Accessed January 27, 2020. https://freedomroad.org/dialectical-and-historical-materialism/.
13. “Andrea Cristina Mercado.” The New Florida Majority, February 25, 2019. https://newfloridamajority.org/4242-2/.
14. “Our Team.” Florida Rising, May 26, 2021. https://floridarising.org/our-team/.
15. “Who We Are.” The New Florida Majority. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://newfloridamajority.org/who-we-are/.
16. “The New Florida Majority Education Fund.” The New Florida Majority. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://newfloridamajority.org/educationfund/.
17. As Florida Governor’s & Legislative Races Heat Up, Worker Groups Release Bold Agenda to Bolster Worker’s Pay, Jobs.” The New Florida Majority. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://newfloridamajority.org/flworkeragenda/.
18. “Miami Residents Rally for Affordable Housing.” The New Florida Majority. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://newfloridamajority.org/0727housingrally/.
19. “What’s riding on amendment 4 and voting rights for convicted felons?” Tampa Bay Times. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/11/02/amendment-4-democrats-and-blacks-more-likely-to-have-lost-voting-rights-than-republicans-and-whites/.
20. “The New Florida Majority Endorses Elizabeth Warren for President.” The New Florida Majority. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://newfloridamajority.org/the-new-florida-majority-endorses-elizabeth-warren-for-president/.
21. “Civil Rights Organization Vows to Continue Fight to Ensure All Eligible Floridians Can Register and Vote, Despite Efforts to Undermine Amendment 4.” Advancement Project. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://advancementproject.org/news/amendment4statement/.
22. “A controversial Florida law stops some former felons from voting. A judge just blocked part of it.” Vox. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/7/2/20677955/amendment-4-florida-felon-voting-rights-injunction-lawsuits-fines-fees.
23. Calvan, Bobby Caina. “Florida High Court Sides with Governor on Felon Voter Rights,” January 16, 2020. https://apnews.com/98ceb8eccb95ef16e6f5ead38a2e8118.
24. “Statement on Today’s Ruling to Extend Voter Registration Deadline.” The New Florida Majority. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://newfloridamajority.org/statement-on-todays-ruling-to-extend-voter-registration-deadline/.
25. “A Ton of Floridians Registered to Vote After Hurricane Matthew, as Rick Scott Likely Feared. Slate. Accessed January 17, 2020. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/10/after-hurricane-matthew-many-people-registered-to-vote-in-florida.html.
26. Herndon, Astead W. “Progressive Donor Susan Sandler to Give $200 Million to Racial Justice Groups,” September 14, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/us/politics/Susan-Sandler-donation-racial-justice.html.
27. “Florida Rising.” Florida Rising, October 20, 2021. https://floridarising.org/.