Young Democrats form a PAC to push turnout in 2024, eye Boca Raton Florida House district

To lure young voters to the polls this year, a group of young Florida Democratic leaders and activists have started an initiative to reach the promising voter group.

To get going, they're focused on increasing turnout among the student electorate at Florida Atlantic University.

Florida College Democrats and Florida High School Democrats in January formed Florida Future Leaders, a political action committee to turn out young voters and raise funds for community outreach.

"Youth leading youth is the most efficient thing that we can possibly do," said Jayden D'Onofrio, the chair of Florida Future Leaders. "We've lagged behind compared to other states in the last election. We have to step it up, and we're stepping up with this move to create a PAC that is led by youth, that is the youngest PAC in the state of Florida."

Youth voter turnout has varied from presidential to midterm election years.

Voters between the ages of 18 to 29 years old had a decisive 55% turnout during the 2020 presidential election year. Overall, however, the average turnout for the under-30 electorate since 2010 is about 35%. It is much lower largely because the age group's enthusiasm for casting a ballot drops in non-presidential election years.

In 2018, voters in the 18 and 29 age group had a 37% turnout. That year's election was dominated by gun violence as a concern given that it took place nine months after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland.

But in 2022, this same age group only posted a 22.4% turnout even though that election came on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

D'Onofrio is a Florida State University student and chairman of the Florida Democratic Party Youth Council. He announced the start of the Florida Future Leaders PAC on X, formerly Twitter, saying its mission is to "build a strong youth political presence."

Florida Future Leaders focused on state House district in FAU's territory

D'Onofrio said the effort is statewide, but the PAC is starting by putting a particular focus on FAU because of its low turnout in 2022, which D’Onofrio said was 22.8%.

Florida college campuses were a legal battleground to set up early voting locations as a way to boost student voter turnout. FAU and other college locations got early voting sites in 2018, but to mixed success.

Today, FAU's district has an incentive for Democratic and more liberal-minded independents. The district in Boca Raton is represented by Republican state Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, who flipped the long-held Democratic seat in the 2022 midterm elections.

For Florida Future Leaders, D'Onofrio said, the goal in FAU's case is to encourage turnout for Florida House Democratic candidate Jay Shooster, who is running against Gossett-Seidman.

Shooster said his campaign focuses on abortion rights and gun violence prevention, issues that have been proven in national polling to rally young voters.

In 2022, Gossett-Seidman won the House District 91 race by about 3 percentage points. The seat was open at the time as former state Rep. Emily Slosberg-King, a Democrat, did not seek re-election.

The GOP flip was boosted by statewide redistricting, which redrew District 91 to drop portions of Delray Beach and Boynton Beach so that it is concentrated within Boca Raton and Highland Beach.

FAU's Florida House race: Boca Raton Democrat starts 2024 bid to unseat Republican with $378,000 in campaign cash

National polls show a major enthusiasm gap for younger voters in this year's election

Yet Florida Future Leaders' push may hit headwinds in 2024.

A Harvard Youth Poll released in December showed that in comparison to 2019 (the year before a presidential election year), the percentage of young voters who "definitely" planned on voting decreased from 57% to 49%.

Other national polling has shown younger voters not excited about a Donald Trump-Joe Biden rematch, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Jan. 25 showing 70% of 1,250 respondents saying Biden shouldn't seek reelection and 56% saying Trump should not run again. A majority cited age as a reason why they were not enthusiastic about either candidate.

For Florida Democrats, they face additional struggles given their repeated failures to win statewide elections and to retain Democratic seats this century. This is particularly true in Palm Beach County, which favored Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2022 midterm elections and saw GOP candidates win county commission seats, too.

That's why political strategists and campaigns have said many Democratic donors nationwide have turned their eyes away from Florida. In response, D'Onofrio said this PAC is meant to fund this effort for young voters to still turn out in a critical presidential year.

He said he believes a strong young voter turnout is possible this year because of efforts to put abortion rights and recreational marijuana amendments on the ballot for the general election.

"Hope isn't coming from outside of the state," D'Onofrio said. "We're working with a number of legislators; we're working with the party. We're working with individual donors, we're working with clubs and DECs (Democratic executive committees) and caucuses all across the state, because they all realize the importance of organizing."

Stephany Matat is a politics reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY-Florida network. Reach her at smatat@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida young Democrats form PAC to fund outreach for turnout in 2024