Florida Labor Letter – Are You Registered to Vote? (Week of 9/18)

Daniel Diaz |

Welcome to another edition of the Florida AFL-CIO’s weekly Florida Labor Letter for the week of 9/18. Election Day is just under 50 days away, a time that feels much farther than it actually is, so our working families have been up and at em this week registering, canvassing, and more! Let’s get into it.

🗳️Electoral News

National Voter Registration Day

“Have you registered to vote?” It’s a question you may have heard a lot this week, and for good reason! That’s because this Tuesday was National Voter Registration Day. With an election this important, it’s a good question too, and there are a massive amount of easy resources working families can use to check their voting status, including the national AFL-CIO’s Better In A Union Voter Registration Checker or Progress Florida and Florida Watch’s Make A Plan To Vote site. It takes less than 5 minutes to check your voter registration, and it will save you far more time than it would discovering at the ballot box.

We will need every vote to break the supermajority and carve a path towards a brighter Florida this November, and the first step towards achieving that is making sure that there is nothing between you and your ballot box. Florida’s Deadline to Register to Vote is October 5th, so make sure you and your neighbors are registered now!

Amendment 3’s Electoral Appeal Slimming as even DeSantis Casts Doubt

As we mentioned in last week’s issue, the campaign around Florida’s 2026 Amendment 3 has been heating up. As a growing bipartisan coalition of organizers, elected officials, law enforcement officers, and union members spread the word out about this hastily put together, ill-researched, and misleadingly pitched effort to get rid of all non-homestead property taxes, those efforts are beginning to show an impact.

When Amendment 3 was first released, and before it was sued into correcting its misleading language, Amendment 3’s false promise of simple savings seemed to resonate with voters, with initial polls in July showing 64% of Floridians favored the initiative. After all, less taxes? Sounds good? Those numbers even seemed to hold relatively steady in the eyes of some politicos when, after the court-mandated re-write, a survey of 800 voters still showed the initiative’s support remaining above 60%.

It’s been a month since then, and in that time our working families have been knocking doors and making calls, joined by a chorus of organizations like Florida TaxWatch, The Florida Policy Institute, and even Florida’s Sheriffs all crossing party lines to educate the public on the dangerous threat that Amendment 3 poses to working Floridians.

This week, new polling from St. Pete Polls and reported by Florida Politics showed Amendment 3 receiving only 45% support among likely voters, a 15% drop and well short of the 60% needed for the amendment to pass. The shift in the air was felt even by Governor DeSantis, whose willingness to take credit for the idea first proposed to the legislature all those years ago has been much more flexible since they decided to make changes to it such as excluding school levies from the exemption. Speaking at the University of Alabama’s Shelby Institute, the Governor said of the amendment:

“I don’t know if it’s going to pass with 60%. I wanted to be bolder and I thought that would bring out more voters who maybe aren’t enthused about voting,”

The drop in support points to success so far on the campaign trail thanks to the efforts of working families and more to educate their neighbors and community on the dangers of Amendment 3, but the job’s not finished, and until election day, we will continue to raise the alarm on Amendment 3’s potential to cost Florida far more than could ever be saved.

🍊Florida Labor News

Phone Bank with Us!

Under 50 days til the election, and we applaud the hard work put in so far by our canvassers and door-knockers in spreading the good word about our Labor 2026 ticket. There’s one place we need all the help we can get though, and that’s on the phones! That’s why we’re asking you to join us for Phone Banking for Labor 2026!

Phone banks are a low commitment and high impact way to make sure that we are able to reach as many of our working families as possible and turn them out for the important races in our community. This week, phone bankers called thousands of their siblings in Senate District 14 to turn out for Our Union Brother and defending State Senator, Brian Nathan, and the numbers will only grow from here to November!

We have a huge slate of Labor Endorsed Candidates this year who are invested in making real, substantive change happen this election, and they will need our help to ensure they cross the finish line in their highly competitive races! Victories like Brother Nathan’s came down to just hundreds of votes, so you help us reach them by heading over to our Mobilize and signing up for a virtual phone bank near you! All you need is a computer and a phone to get started, with all phone banks providing training and more to every participant!

🗓️On the Horizon (New Events!)

As Labor 2026 gets underway, make sure you are not just making a plan to vote, but staying tuned to our FL AFL-CIO Mobilize to see the latest ways you can get involved in local actions, canvassing efforts, and more! See below for some important dates and visit Mobilize for the full breakdown!

  • Statewide
    • Important GENERAL Election Dates!
      • The primaries are over! On to the general! Wherever you are on the aisle, you should know these important election dates from the Florida Division of Elections:
        • Deadline to send vote-by-mail ballots to UOCAVA voters: September 19, 2026
        • Deadline to send vote-by-mail ballots to domestic voters:  September 24 2026 – October 1, 2026
        • Deadline to register to vote:  October 5, 2026
        • Deadline to request that ballot be mailed: October 22, 2026
        • Early voting period (mandatory period):  October 24 – 31, 2026
        • Election Day:  November 3, 2026
  • Digital
    • September 21st: Labor 2026 All Hands on Deck @ 6:00PM
      • Every Monday from now until November, join your FL AFL-CIO family for a Labor 2026 All Hands on Deck call. Receive the latest updates from the campaign front lines, share in victories and stories, as well as hear from some of our Labor Endorsed Candidates about your direct impact on their campaign! This Monday September 21st we will be joined by our union brother and state Senator Brian Nathan, who is running for re-election in SD 14! You can attend the meeting via this zoom link.
    • September 22nd: Statewide Labor Town Hall @ 7:30PM
      • As we approach election day, we believe in facilitating the conversations between our members and candidates on the issues most important to them. Join us Tuesday, September 22nd for a panel put together by FEA and moderated by our very own FL AFL-CIO President Kimberly Holdridge featuring a discussion on the issues closest to you this election. There will also be an opportunity for audience Q&A, and you can register at the webinar link here!
    • First Monday of every Month: FLARA Monthly Meetings
      • The Florida Alliance of Retired Americans (FLARA) invites any and all to attend their monthly zoom meetings. FLARA meets on the first Friday of every month at 10 AM EST, and features guest speakers and relevant information for retirees from national and state governments as well as important information on demonstrations, partner activities, etc.
      • Those interested in attending FLARA meetings should contact tammy@flara.org in order to get the monthly invitation.
  • Regional (By CLC)

🛠️Business Board

Let’s Get Medicaid Expansion On the 2028 Ballot!

Attendees of our COPE Convention may recall one of our signature workshops by the Florida Policy Institute’s Chief Strategy & Development Officer, Holly Bullard, on the important topic of Medicaid Expansion in Florida. Off of the positive reception to her workshop, we wanted to make sure that all of you knew about the important and growing fight to finally get it done in Florida.

Over 15 years, Medicaid Expansion bills have been filed in the Florida Legislature, and have gone nowhere. This is all despite the fact that 75% of Florida voters support expansion, including a majority of Republicans. All the while, years of inaction have left over 3.5 million Floridians in a growing gap with no healthcare, increasing premiums, and billions left on the table in federal funds that could easily alleviate the issue. It’s time to change this un-necessary and awful reality, and Florida’s working families are key to getting it done.

Florida Decides Healthcare is leading a citizen-led ballot initiative to expand Medicaid and cover over one million Floridians who fall through the cracks: workers who earn too much for Medicaid but too little for private insurance. These are our siblings who show up every day and still can’t afford to see a doctor. With an unresponsive legislature, it’s time the voters forced action on the issue themselves. Since the legislature cracked down on citizens having a say in their own constitution last year, we’re hitting the ground early on this effort for 2028. Here’s how you can help:

Here’s the ask. It takes one minute:

  1. Request your petition at https://floridadecideshealthcare.org/aflcio/
  2. It arrives by mail. Sign it.
  3. Mail it back. That’s it.

Your signature moves Medicaid expansion one step closer to Florida voters, and one step closer to healthcare for a million of your fellow Floridians. In a state that seeks to silence its voters, every single signature counts, so feel free to share the link with your coworkers, family, neighbors, and union siblings statewide.

All Florida workers deserve affordable healthcare. This is how we show up and make it happen.

  • P.O.W.E.R Trainings and Pledge: Labor 2026 represents not just a statewide, but a national opportunity for change to build a better future for all of those in organized labor. To achieve victory, we’ll need as much help as we can get! Ahead of November, take the P.O.W.E.R pledge to:
    • Protect: Protecting the vote and ensuring every member can safely cast their ballot.
    • Organize: Organize new labor strongholds led by workers.
    • Win: Win crucial races that determine the future of workers’ rights.
    • Engage: Engage our baseline through authentic peer-to-peer contact.
    • Right Now: Mobilize Right Now. Action today creates victory tomorrow.

That concludes this week’s roundup! Thank you for reading and as always, In Solidarity!

Got any tips, actions, or messages you’d like to see in this email?

Please email Daniel Diaz at ddiaz@flaflcio.org

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