As part of the Florida Democratic Party’s statewide Rural Tour, Terrie Rizzo, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, was excited to visit Gadsden County to energize the local party and talk about the Florida Democratic Party’s voter registration efforts and the party’s voter protection hotline.

On August 14, Congressman Al Lawson, Rep. Loranne Ausley, County Commissioner Brenda Holt, and Florida Democratic Party Vice Chair Judy Mount joined Rizzo on the Florida Democratic Party’s Rural Tour at New Bethel AME Church in Quincy. The Rural Tour is an ongoing campaign to reach out to small counties outside of major metropolitan areas.

After the event, Rizzo talked about the importance of this outreach and stated, “the rural tour is part of a statewide strategy to register and energize every single Democrat and make sure everyone’s vote is counted.”

Rizzo also touched on the need for voter protection: “With Republican voter suppression happening year-round, we can’t register voters and then leave them to fend for themselves, that is why we are working all year to defend voters’ rights and have launched a voter protection hotline.”

The statewide rural tour was launched in June of 2018 to focus on connecting with people in smaller counties and rural areas and having honest conversations about issues affecting their communities.

Florida Democrats have already begun an aggressive effort to lay the infrastructure for the eventual Democratic nominee to win Florida in 2020. In partnership with the DNC’s Organizing Corp 2020 program the FDP has 90 field organizers on the ground who are working to register hundreds of thousands of voters, and the FDP is making a multi-million dollar investment to organize and communicate with communities of color — including advertising in key outlets and the launch of a new, weekly Spanish language radio program on Radio Actualidad. Florida Democrats have also launched a year-round voter protection and education department.