On Saturday, the Florida Democratic Party, in partnership with the National Democratic Training Committee, hosted a first-of-its-kind candidate training in Northwest Florida where over 70 Democrats were trained. Those trained included potential candidates, campaign staff, and party leaders from Bay, Okaloosa, Escambia, Gulf, Santa Rosa and Walton counties.

The training, which is a part of FDP’s Municipal Victory Program, covered Communications, Fundraising, Digital and Field.

“As a previous candidate and a current local party leader, I know how overwhelming it can be to conceptualize a soup-to-nuts campaign strategy,” said Gulf County DEC Chair Cassie Studstill participated in Saturday’s Training. “Training tools like these, allow us to connect with and empower our next generation of local and municipal leaders.”

The training comes after the Florida Democratic Party announced Campaign Blueprint, a gamechanging online toolkit that helps first-time candidates build and execute their campaign plans. Dr. Carolynn Zonia, Candidate for County Commission District 5 in Walton County, was one of the first candidates to use Campaign Blueprint and participated in Saturday’s training.

“This training provided us with the proven approaches for success in fundraising, outreach, communication and canvassing,” said Dr. Zonia, “This training on Saturday already helped me craft a better message for my campaign event on Sunday.”

This was the first training in a series of trainings happening across the state. The next trainings will happen in Jacksonville on October 19th, and Tampa on November 16th.