Remember when we wrote for Kathy Lewis in a Special Election for Florida State Senate? Her district is comprised of portions of three different Congressional Districts. The first list we wrote included the name of Democratic candidate for Congress Alan Cohn. This second list will be for voters in Florida’s 14th Congressional District. This is where Democrat Kathy Castor is running.

So, please be sure to write Kathy Lewis and Kathy Castor on these postcards. Here’s the write-up since we have lots of new volunteers who may not have written #PostcardsToVoters for Kathy Lewis before.

Our 211th campaign is a “two-fer” where we are writing primarily in support of Democrat Kathy Lewis whose Florida State Senate district spans portions of three different U.S. Congressional districts. We will be writing to three separate lists of Democratic voters. The message items will be nearly identical except for the different Democratic candidates’ names running for Congress. Please keep this important difference in mind if you write for Kathy Lewis more than once. Pay close attention to the message items in case we have move on to a different section of the district.

This election now is a Special Election triggered by the retirement of the incumbent Republican in late May. It will appear on the same General Election ballot on November 3rd. Because of the surprise resignation, there has been very little time to put together a campaign this cycle.

With this being an open seat, it is the perfect opportunity to flip the district. Kathy’s opponent has close ties with the far-right Florida governor. They have predictably tapped into the Republican leadership money machine and have far outstripped Kathy’s proud, but meager fundraising efforts.

The Florida Senate District 20 seat is critical for the Democrats to gain at least a tie in the Senate, where Republicans currently hold a 23-17 majority. With a Republican governor and Republicans likely to retain control of the Florida House, gaining at least a tie in the Senate is crucial for redistricting during the 2021 legislative session. With an open seat due to the surprise resignation, Florida Senate 20 is one of the most likely to flip, if we can mobilize Democratic voters. Even though the seat has been in Republican hands for some time, the district has been trending toward purple, and your campaign collectible can help get Democratic voters from the mailbox to the ballot box.

Kathy is a strong Black woman who grew up poor in inner city Baltimore. Sadly, gun violence affected her family multiple times. “People think that when you hear stories about gun violence in poor neighborhoods that it’s just bad people shooting and killing other bad people,” Kathy says. “None of my family members were criminals, we were just poor.” Kathy’s mother was wounded by a stray bullet, but thankfully survived. Other family and friends were not so lucky.

She worked her way out of poverty to graduate from Johns Hopkins University. Kathy is raising a daughter who has disabilities and has become a fierce, effective fighter for persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+ communities, families, and workers.

Kathy almost won this seat in 2018 against a senior member of the Republican leadership and former Senate President. She earned 46.5% of the vote, with virtually no Democratic Party support because they thought the race was not winnable and would be a waste of resources. You can watch her introductory video at: YouTube.com/watch?v=K38rlNFDXAA

We aren’t going to write anything negative on the postcards, of course. But, it’s good for you to know what’s at stake. The Republican, Danny Burgess, has tied himself both to right-wing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and to President Trump. Burgess was among the select few local officials to greet Trump at the foot of the stairs of Air Force One on a recent campaign stop in Tampa. Burgess is currently running a name-recognition campaign, using his war chest to saturate the district with mailers, yard signs, and road signs.

For those not plugged into Florida politics, Governor Ron DeSantis was Donald Trump’s hand-picked choice for the job, and was narrowly elected in 2018. Politico’s recent description of him: “DeSantis is through-and-through a conservative. He’s not an anti-mask Covid truther. But he’s deeply skeptical of academics and scientists.” DeSantis gave Danny Burgess a $150,000/year government job, that Burgess then left just four months later to run for State Senate. Burgess has had a meteoric fundraising campaign, bringing in over $270,000 in three months. One has to wonder about the backroom dealings and who promised what to whom.

There are already lots of postcarding efforts competing for your time and postage. I hope that you can spare five or ten for the swing-iest swing state – Florida!