Details are as-yet scant, but state and federal Dems say a national tour that is bringing the symbolic leaders of two often at-odds party factions will have a stop in the Sunshine State.
The aim?
To get voters in swing states psyched about the party's message ahead of the coming midterm election cycle...and, probably, to help unite the party in the fight against overwhelming GOP majorities at the state and federal levels (which isn't happening because the GOP is winning the war of ideas, mind you, but for far more nefarious reasons).
Tom Perez, who replaced the woman who replaced Miami Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz as head of the Democratic National Committee, will be joined in Miami and other cities by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
It's an interesting ticket, given that Sanders lost the party's presidential nomination to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after a bitter primary battle that left some members of the party deeply disillusioned. Many Sanders supporters scorned the DNC for what they saw as tipping the scales in Clinton's favor, and refused to vote for her as a result of the party's meddling. That same group of Democrats (some who have left the party) were critical of Tom Perez's election as DNC chair; they would have liked to see the more progressive choice, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, get the part.
So, presumably, next week's event will be all about unity and bringing the party together to fight the Trump agenda in the 2018 midterms. Midterm elections, after all, tend not to inspire Democratic participation as much as it does for Republicans.
But 2018 might be different, given the anti-Trump momentum that has brought with it hyper focus on down-ballot politicians.
One might wonder why organizers of the event (who have yet to release its time and venue) chose the Miami area for such a rally.
After all, there's that whole thing about the I-4 corridor essentially being a cross-section of the nation's electorate, and the Tampa Bay area's media market is the biggest in the state.
Perhaps scheduling the event in Miami, then, is a way to draw attention to efforts to dethrone U.S. Rep. Carlos Carbuelo, a Miami Republican who was recently deemed the most vulnerable Republican in Congress.
Perez and Sanders are expected to rally around the party's hard-fought platform, which includes a $15 an hour minimum wage, reigniting the fight against climate change, free college tuition, criminal justice reform, raising taxes on the wealthy and other pledges that set up a quite stark contrast as the party prepares to do battle in the 2018 midterm election cycle.
Other states in which they plan to rally include Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada and Utah.
