Accomplishments at the Miami-Dade Democratic Party
As Executive Director for the Democratic Executive Committee in Miami-Dade, Florida’s largest county, Christopher was responsible for digital grassroots fundraising, hiring a field team, and transitioning that field team to deal with a global pandemic, growing our email list and communicating regularly with our volunteers, members and donors.
I built out our digital platforms from a couple of websites to more than 20 websites including www.votefromhome.miami, www.registertovote.miami, and www.checkmyballot.miami.
Press Engagement
I wrote and distributed more than 75 press releases and press advisories, as well as fielding calls and press inquiries from local, state and national press. Here is a sampling of some of press releases I wrote.
Commissioner Levine Cava’s Historic Victory Also Marks the First Democratic Mayor of Miami-Dade in 16 Years
Miami-Dade FL: Tonight, Daniella Levine Cava can claim victory in Miami-Dade County after Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents in Miami-Dade County voted in historic numbers through mail-in voting, Early Voting, and Election Day voting.
MIAMI-DADE, FL: Today the Miami-Dade Democratic Party announced that it raised more than $3 million dollars in 2020, shattering the fundraising record it had set the year before of $607,000. This banner year fundraising has provided the party with the resources to invest in robust organizing throughout the county and support local candidates in key races.
The Miami-Dade Democratic Party has endorsed Luisa Santos for School Board in District 9.
Ms. Santos moved to Miami from Bogota, Colombia when she was eight and thanks to Miami-Dade County Public Schools, was speaking fluent English by nine. During her junior year at Coral Reef Sr. High, Luisa discovered she was undocumented. She persisted — starting her higher education at Miami Dade College and eventually becoming a proud U.S. citizen.
“We are thrilled to support our member, Dr. Marie Flore Lindor Latortue in her race for Miami-Dade School Board,” said Steve Simeonidis, Chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. “Dr. Latortue is a force of nature and changes any room she is in— for the better. I cannot wait for her to join the Miami-Dade County School Board.”
Miami-Dade, FL: Today, the Miami-Dade Democratic Party Steering Committee passed a unanimous resolution calling for the Miami-Dade Elections Department to create drive-through and walk-up dropboxes for voters to deposit completed Vote-By- Mail ballots.
Miami-Dade, FL: - Four Republican candidates running in Miami-Dade County have accepted money from disgraced former congressman David Rivera, whose company was paid $15M by Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro's PDVSA oil company, it was revealed in the New York Times yesterday. We've highlighted donations to Commissioner Esteban "Steve" Bovo and District 8 Candidate John Dubois. We now highlight two more GOP candidates who have accepted the tainted Maduro-linked money:
House District 120 candidate Rhonda Rebman Lopez accepted $1,000 in September 2019.
Former Congressional District 26 candidate Irina Vilariño accepted $2,800 in December 2019.
Alerts Sent to Monroe County Raise Questions About Corrupt Carlos Mixing Mayoral Duties with Congressional Run
MIAMI, FL: Alarming emails revealed by an NBC6 investigation confirm the political motivation behind Corrupt Carlos Giménez’s county staffs’ decision to put his name on a series of public safety alerts. The alerts were seen as far south as Islamorada, which is in Monroe County and outside of his jurisdiction, but still within the Congressional District Corrupt Carlos is running for.
Declaring WWE Wrestling an essential business looks like worst kind of pay-to-play politics
MIAMI, FL: Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair Steve Simeonidis slammed Gov. Ron DeSantis for declaring WWE Wrestling an essential business while WWE owner and former SBA Administrator Linda McMahon’s Super PAC “America First” announced an $18.5 million ad buy in Florida on behalf of Donald Trump’s reelection.
Fundraising:
In a record fundraising year, I bolstered our digital fundraising capabilities, managing a virtual Blue Gala; raising more than $250,000 through ActBlue from February through November from email fundraising, digital advertising, and redirects from our website and Mobilize. We had more than 2,100 individual contributions with the average contribution at $125.
Here is a small sample of some of the fundraising emails I wrote.
After we thought the presidential election was over in November 2020, we turned our attention to helping out with two important U.S. Senate races in Georgia. I wrote this fundraising email to support that cause.
I wrote this volunteer newsletter for the last weekend of the presidential campaign in 2020.
I wrote what I called the “last newsletter before Election Day” on October 29, 2020 (it was not actually the last newsletter before Election Day).
Last night, Republicans in the US Senate, including Florida’s own Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, voted to confirm Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This is despite Election Day being just a week away.
We need your help. Early voting begins today, and we’re at an absolutely critical point in our GOTV efforts.
We've built up a lead in Early Vote returns. Our chair, Steve Simeonidis, has made it clear how important it is to maintain that early lead in during Early Voting and Election Day. The Republican machine is gearing up to stop our momentum in these final two weeks.
With 12 days until Election Day, I wrote this newsletter highlighting the many ways volunteers could get involved with the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
I wrote this email on October 13, 2020 to raise funds for our early vote team in Miami-Dade County.
Digital Advertising:
I managed multiple large scale GOTV advertising campaigns, including a Facebook/Instagram campaign advertising our digital slate, www.votefordemocrats.miami. Over the course of 2020, we reached more than 900,000 Miami-Dade voters with our Facebook/Instagram ads.
We also ran radio advertising in Spanish and Haitian Creole.
Here are some of the digital ads I wrote, designed and edited.
We ran a digital ad campaign targeted at registered Democrats and Democratic-leaning NPA’s in all of the Florida House districts in Miami-Dade County with custom videos urging them to vote for Democrats down the ballot, starting with Miami-Dade mayoral candidate, Daniella Levine Cava. The videos were edited for the specific House districts they were running in.
Miami, FL: Today the Miami-Dade Democratic Party launches its Haitian American Radio campaign. A combination of 320 interviews and commercials will air across 4 Haitian American radio stations beginning on Friday, September 25 and running until Election Day. The campaign will be voiced by North Miami Vice Mayor Alix Desulme and Haitian American radio personality Herntz Phanord, and will air on WQVN 1360 AM Radyo Pep La, WLQY 1320 AM Radio Tout Mou’n Jwen, WSRF 1580 Radio Haiti Amerique International, and WJCC 1700 AM Radio Mega.
I ran ads periodically on Facebook urging people to become grassroots level donors to the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
When Senator Harris was announced as Joe Biden’s running mate, we sent out a congratulatory email, and paired it with a digital ad campaign encouraging constituents to engage with us by donating to the Party.
From April through October, we ran digital ads in different congressional districts throughout Miami-Dade County, urging Democratic voters to sign up for Vote-By-Mail. These were some of the ads we ran.
I edited this video while I was the Digital and Development Director of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. It included a link (miamidadedems.org/endthechaos) that redirected viewers to a custom fundraising link to raise funds for the local Democratic Party. Our online fundraising efforts in 2020 led to record-breaking results for a local Democratic Party Committee in Florida.
List-building:
Through our various websites, petitions and actions, I grew our email and text list by over 12,000 names. Communicating with our members and constituents through a weekly newsletter that went out to over 30,000 recipients, and through our social media platforms.
Here are some of the newsletters I wrote.
I wrote this volunteer newsletter for the last weekend of the presidential campaign in 2020.
I wrote what I called the “last newsletter before Election Day” on October 29, 2020 (it was not actually the last newsletter before Election Day).
With 12 days until Election Day, I wrote this newsletter highlighting the many ways volunteers could get involved with the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
I wrote this email newsletter to promote our slate cards which we were distributing both in print and digitally.
Tonight is the first night of our 2020 Virtual Blue Gala, Chaired by Miami Beach Commissioner David Richardson. We have an impressive line-up of speakers, artists and entertainers for both nights, including Vice President Joe Biden. You can see the full lineup at www.miamibluegala.com.
On Tuesday, we held a special Democratic Executive Committee meeting to make endorsements in key races being held this August 18. We’re now just days away from ballots being mailed for the August election, and weeks away from the start of early voting. Read on to see our endorsements.
I wrote this newsletter and fundraising email to Miami-Dade Democrats in the Passover and Easter season.
I wrote this newsletter on February 25, before we had to shut down most of our in-person activities due to the Coronavirus outbreak. This newsletter advertised an event we were sponsoring called the “Blue Forum & Fair” which was meant to bring Miami-Dade Democrats together to meet with candidates and watch a forum of major candidates for Miami-Dade County Mayor.
I wrote this organizing and fundraising email in December 2021, as it was becoming increasingly clear that the United States Supreme Court was considering overturning Roe v. Wade.