The Miami-based Florida New Majority is a 501(c)(4) founded in 2009, located in Liberty City, that has worked to get out Haitian, African-American and Latino voters for the November election.
“In 2008, people had hope for a progressive Florida. We saw the potential and excitement about Obama’s election but this doesn’t carry through to an organized movement,” says Gijan Perera, the director of New Majority, in a recent interview with The Florida Independent.
New Majority partners are Progress Florida, America Votes Table, Miami Workers Center, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Democracia USA, Power U, Equality Florida, Farm workers Association and Fair Immigration Reform Movement.
According to New Majority’s website, “FNM Canvassers in four metro regions of the state: Miami, Palm Beach, Orlando and Tampa, knocked on over 100,000 doors and got 30,000 people to commit to filling out their census form.”
New Majority supported Marlen Bastien in the congressional District 17 Democratic primary, eventually won by Frederica Wilson, and has worked to turn out voters for Democratic congressional candidate Joe Garcia and Alison Austin in the City of Miami’s District 5.
Perera explained that New Majority will challenge an S.B. 1070-style immigration law for Florida, push for job creation that “is not a tax cut scheme for business” and work to guarantee that the stimulus package supports local business and local hiring.
He added that in order to build an active base of Hispanic, black and white working class voters, his group is
looking through 2012 to install progressive values and community accountability. We’re not afraid to say government has a role to play and tell candidates we support them and will hold them accountable. We need more convergence between county, city, state and federal elected representatives.
We haven’t given enough bold ideas when we talk about health care, banks and Wall Street. We want to support champions of progressive values. We support Alan Grayson, Joe Garcia on immigration, education and racial justice.
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There are tons of people, church and civic organizations who want to do something but are not connected to a statewide discussion. We are not skipping a beat from the electoral cycle to the legislative cycle.
