How We Survive and Turn the Tide: Lessons from Florida

For over a decade, Florida has been my political organizing home and the state where the far right has established its headquarters.

After years of organizing in California and co-founding the National Domestic Workers Alliance, coming home to Florida in 2013 to be near family shifted my perspective on electoral politics and the state of our democracy.

One year after the Department of Homeland Security began its all-out assault on immigrant communities, there is no sign of ICE’s reign of terror slowing as agents now bear down on Minnesotans through brazen acts of state-sanctioned violence. In Florida, we share the sorrow and anger wrought by these events, and we also recognize the strategies the administration is using to divide social movements and weaken progressive momentum everywhere.

We know this playbook well because we’ve been surviving it. DeSantis has wielded the power of the state as a weapon against grassroots organizations and progressive values. And in this period of political upheaval, organizers in Florida—working in hostile terrain—have hard-earned lessons to share.

Florida organizers have endured some of the country’s most aggressive far-right governance. DeSantis used the power of the state to suppress voters, ban books, attack LGBTQ+ communities, end DEI programs, and dismantle labor protections. He criminalized protest, banned abortion after six weeks, and reversed gun safety laws. He even removed elected officials who challenged him.

Florida became the testing ground for right-wing strategies to grow a voter base and manipulate cultural and political narratives. The state has been the site for an all-out war to capture the hearts and minds of Latino and Black voters while simultaneously limiting their political power. Now these strategies are being nationalized. It is a nightmare that organizers in the South have been experiencing for years.

Here are lessons we’ve learned in Florida on how to survive authoritarianism and plant the seeds for long term resistance.

Respond strategically, for the long game

During a previous Florida legislative session when state senators were banning Black history, passing Don’t Say Gay school policies, erasing Black voting districts, attacking immigrant kids, undermining rooftop solar, appointing six new trustees to dismantle New College of Florida’s progressive curriculum, and more, the far right took over leadership roles in the GOP and staged an all-out coup. Don’t Say Gay school walkouts and Wake Up Wednesday protests on book banning helped fuel public opinion of government overreach, and set the stage for Moms for Liberty candidates to be widely defeated in school board elections in August 2024.

Reacting to every ideological attack is a recipe for burnout. Instead, organizers and civically engaged community members need to respond strategically, especially when right wing takeover of our governing apparatus makes it clear that mass mobilizations won’t necessarily stop a policy from becoming law.

Crucially, a visible and well-executed opposition invites in new allies who share similar values while sending an important message to people targeted by hateful policies that they are not alone. If and when these efforts capture media attention, the opposition is put on defense.

At the same time, responding to current conditions cannot detract from building and following a long-term plan. Being clear on a path to breaking a right wing trifecta—even when it’s a ten or twenty-year plan—keeps a coalition clear, grounded, and focused. This approach helps organizations make strategic choices on which neighborhood issues to prioritize, which programs to build, and where new constituencies must be engaged.

Meaningful campaigns create conditions for more

We know from experience that a change in political conditions doesn’t guarantee that the lives of marginalized communities will change for the better. With that in mind, we build transformational campaigns to lay the groundwork for structural change and develop scores of future leaders.

Black youth established Dream Defenders and laid a pivotal seed for Movement for Black Lives by taking over the statehouse to seek justice for Trayvon Martin. Similarly, the historic campaign by the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition to re-enfranchise people with felony convictions not only was a historic win in Florida, but resulted in several states changing their voting rights laws through legislation and constitutional amendments, and opened up civic discourse on welcoming returning citizens back into our communities.

In our nation, we’ve witnessed how transformative moments and people-powered campaigns help shift the dominant culture and develop leaders. Community leaders from those campaigns—many of whom are now running for office, like Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet and Angie Nixon—or have already been elected to public office, including gun violence prevention advocate and Congressman Maxwell Frost—also lead critical parts of our movement infrastructure and have trained dozens of people who have come after them. We need to pick campaigns that will motivate people to step into action, and then we must invest in their long-term growth.

Pressure test your internal systems

Florida’s role in 2008 and 2012 in electing our first Black president resulted in significant backlash, and in a new wave of weaponizing government apparatus to depress civic engagement. The upswell of voter registration and effective campaigns to sign people up to vote by mail led to concerted efforts by Republicans to criminalize community organizations spearheading voter registration efforts and make voting by mail more difficult.

These actions have forced Florida nonprofits engaging in frontline democracy work to develop sophisticated internal quality control programs and rigorous oversight. And even then, we can’t expect the opposition to fight fair. They make the rules and then they break them.

Now is a time to pressure test your internal systems and perform digital, financial, and legal audits. With voter and civic engagement freedoms at continued risk, voter registration organizations have to be extremely diligent with quality control systems and practices. Regardless of your issue areas, the multiple recent White House attempts to attack civil society at large is a good reminder that everyone should take heed and bolster internal systems.

But remember: you don’t have to let fear win. Talk to a leader of a Florida movement institution and you’ll find they’ve likely been targeted by the state, subpoenaed, have had their organization or reputation dragged through the mud, blasted on television and the news. Being attacked is probably a sign you’re doing good work, and getting under their skin.

Secure trusted legal counsel

Having trusted legal counsel is a must for any movement organization. We will not be able to anticipate the opposition’s actions or sequencing. Since becoming Florida’s governor in 2019, Ron DeSantis has removed eight elected officials from office and replaced them with his appointees. We cannot underestimate extralegal activity as well: climate champion State Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez lost his reelection to right-wing candidate IIeana Garcia, thanks to a fake candidate, funded by Florida Power & Light, with the same last name as Rodriguez who secured over 2,000 votes in a “ghost candidate scandal.”

It is critical for social justice forces to document illegal and unconstitutional actions by government forces. Movement organizations have served as lead plaintiffs on several lawsuits for voting rights that exposed 20 years of official GOP discrimination against Black and Latino voters. They’ve also led litigation against the criminalization of protest in Florida.

Community Justice Project, Advancement Project, and Earth Justice have been standouts among movement lawyers who have accompanied grassroots forces. Being a plaintiff opens organizations up to discovery and additional government scrutiny. Organizations taking calculated risks should be informed, supported and resourced.

Carve out time and space for connection and belonging

We deserve to prosper, to thrive, to feel safe and seen. We deserve to feel that our best days are ahead of us—if not for our generation, then for the generations to come.

The Florida Immigrant Coalition established Universities Without Walls, a program that cultivates connection by gathering community leaders together to explore intersectional issues that impact Florida residents. Florida Rising, where I served as Executive Director, holds monthly People’s Assemblies in multiple languages in 10 counties across the state, and virtual assemblies for members in every congressional district. Alianza hosts first Fridays in Central Florida grounded in Puerto Rican arts and culture. And for years, activists have been meeting up in front of the Immigrations Customs Enforcement office in Miramar every Wednesday morning.

We have to build belonging for political, climate, and economic refugees in a new home, and for everyone who believes this nation can and must live up to its promises and highest ideals.

Celebrate your victories, big and small

We deserve to feel joy and momentum. Florida’s $15 minimum wage initiative led to a 30% pay increase for millions, and is the highest statewide minimum wage in the South. Every local win—an eviction defense, a commission vote, a utility settlement—is worth celebrating.

The kind of coalition work needed to resist the forces of fascism is hard. As Bernice Johnson Reagon said, real coalition work makes you feel like you’re “gonna keel over.” That discomfort means you’re doing it right. Shared wins and joyful moments are fuel for the road ahead.