Candidates and volunteers fanned out across Orange and Osceola counties as campaigns stepped up door-to-door outreach
ORLANDO, Fla. — Democratic candidates, campaign volunteers and visiting leaders from the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico spent the weekend canvassing across Central Florida as campaigns intensified voter outreach ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.
Weekend events included campaigns supporting U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, Chief Financial Officer candidate Annette Taddeo, Agriculture Commissioner candidate Joey Mendoza Atkins, Florida House candidate Samuel Vilchez Santiago, gubernatorial nominee David Jolly and his running mate Gwen Graham, and Osceola County Commission candidate Mary Downey. Orange County School Board District 3 candidate Susanne Peña, whose race is officially nonpartisan, also participated in weekend organizing.
Campaigns used restaurants and other community gathering places as staging locations, where volunteers received instructions before heading into neighborhoods to knock on doors and speak directly with voters.
One of Sunday’s events, the Florida Democratic Party’s Nuestra Voz en Acción Central Florida Day of Action, launched from Taino’s Bakery on Lake Underhill Road in Orlando. The event was organized to support Taddeo, Soto and Vilchez Santiago and focused on conversations with Spanish-speaking voters.
Puerto Rico Democrats join Central Florida outreach
The Democratic Party of Puerto Rico sent a delegation to Central Florida for the weekend, led by party Chair Luis D. Dávila-Pernas. The Democratic National Committee and Federal Election Commission recognize the organization as the Democratic Party’s official Puerto Rico affiliate, and Dávila-Pernas serves as its chair.
Dávila-Pernas told canvassers that Central Florida feels familiar because of the region’s strong connections to Puerto Rico.
“I flew in from Puerto Rico last Friday, along with my colleagues, and we have been hitting the campaign trail all weekend, and it always feels like home when we come here to Central Florida,” he said.
“We are all connected,” Dávila-Pernas added. “It’s not about where we come from, but rather the community we are about to engage with.”
Florida had an estimated 1.3 million residents of Puerto Rican origin in 2024, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, making the community an important part of the state’s population and particularly visible in Central Florida.
Candidates emphasize listening, insurance costs
Mendoza Atkins told Sunday’s canvassers that door-to-door organizing should be as much about hearing from residents as delivering a campaign message.
“To be out here on a Sunday to help build communities, to talk to communities and most importantly to listen,” Mendoza Atkins said. “We as the party may have lost our way — too much talking and not enough listening.”
Mendoza Atkins is the Democratic nominee challenging Republican incumbent Wilton Simpson for Florida Commissioner of Agriculture. Florida election records show both qualified for the November ballot.
Taddeo focused much of her remarks on Florida’s insurance costs.
“Florida is worth fighting for. That’s why we are all in this race,” she said.
Taddeo told volunteers that homeowners and renters alike feel the effects of property insurance costs because landlords can pass those expenses through rent. She also criticized the way some insurance companies have handled profits and affiliated businesses during periods of rising premiums.
Taddeo previously served on the Florida Senate’s Banking and Insurance Committee, including during the 2018-2020 and 2020-2022 legislative terms.
Soto, Vilchez Santiago campaigns focus on Central Florida voters
Soto, who is seeking reelection in Florida’s 9th Congressional District, joined a field effort centered in a district that includes all of Osceola County and portions of Orange and Polk counties. Soto was first elected to Congress in 2016 and describes himself as the first person of Puerto Rican descent elected to Congress from Florida.
Vilchez Santiago is the Democratic nominee for Florida House District 43, not District 48. State election records show he won the Democratic primary and qualified for the November ballot.
Speaking to canvassers, Vilchez Santiago pushed back against political attacks that characterize Democrats as socialists.
“The Republicans have figured out all they have to do is call us socialists,” he said. “Well, I’m here to tell you something: none of us here are socialists. I escaped socialism when I was 13 years old. I am not a socialist, will never be.”
His campaign biography describes him as the son of political refugees who came to Florida seeking safety and opportunity and says he grew up in East Orlando.
Photos from the weekend also showed supporters gathering with signs for Angie Nixon, Florida’s Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. State election records show Nixon won the Democratic primary and is on the November ballot against Republican incumbent Ashley Moody and other candidates.
Organizers said Florida Democratic Party and Equality Florida volunteers also participated in weekend field activity.
Mail ballots begin entering the election
The canvassing came as Florida campaigns entered a more active phase of the general election.
Campaign organizers said some Orange County voters had already begun receiving vote-by-mail ballots. The Orange County Supervisor of Elections says its first delivery of local vote-by-mail ballots occurs 40 to 33 days before an election, followed by daily mailings for later requests. The county’s voter-registration deadline for the Nov. 3 election is Oct. 5, while the deadline to request a mail ballot is Oct. 22.
For the campaigns, that means conversations taking place at doors are increasingly happening with voters who may already have ballots in hand.
