Ruth’s List Florida, an influential statewide progressive political fundraising group, is hosting a conference April 26 at Hyatt Regency Miami, bringing together elected officials, community leaders and activists to promote and raise campaign dollars for Democratic pro-choice women in state and local offices.
“Women deserve a seat at the table,” said Ruth’s List CEO Christina Diamond. “It’s so important that we have representation across the board.”
Ruth’s List Florida is an organization dedicated to recruiting, training and supporting women in the Democratic party, which is facing major challenges in a state where Republicans dominate the Florida Legislature and the Governor’s office.
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In the last election cycle, the GOP swept the seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate. In Florida, Republican incumbent Sen. Rick Scott returned to the U.S. Senate after defeating Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
Republicans also won seats in the Florida Legislature by a landslide, with the GOP now holding 85 seats in the state House and 28 seats in the state Senate.
Ruth’s List Florida was founded in 2008 by former Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and was named after Ruth Bryan Owens, the first woman elected as a Florida House representative in 1929.
Since its inception, the organization has raised over $9.5 million for women candidates, trained more than 2,600 women candidates and campaign staff, and elected over 300 women to school boards, city councils, as mayors, in the state legislature and other offices. One of their re-elected endorsed candidates is Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava
“Last cycle, even in a very tough election year, 62% of our candidates won their races,” said Diamond. “That’s because we have this community of support and this organization behind them.”
But, how do they choose their candidates? By their stances on reproductive health care.
“Electing pro-choice women has always been our mission,” said Diamond. “We focus on electing women who are going to fight and support our reproductive health care. This is a fight that's never really going to go away.”
While Ruth’s List Florida uses reproductive health care as a qualifier to rally behind women running for office, Diamond clarifies that the candidates also run on a host of other issues.
“Once these women do get elected, they are advocating for quality education, access to healthcare, safer communities, economic issues so that people can prosper and have affordable housing,” said Diamond.
“We're not just electing women who are focused on this one issue,” she added. “But they're advocating for issues that help women across the board.
One of the cities they’re focusing on is Miami, where the Catalyst Conference and Gala is being held for the second year in a row.
Even though the conference started ten years ago in Orlando, Ruth’s List Florida relocated the event in 2024 because of the high concentration of candidates and supporters in Miami-Dade.
“Miami-Dade is a very competitive area, but [those] are exactly the kind of areas that we want to be in,” said Diamond.
The conference plans to host sessions based on the training the organization provides to their prospective candidates, which include how to fundraise for their campaign, communicate publicly and speak to voters at their doorsteps, and ultimately prepare them to win their position in government. Ruth’s List Florida is also hosting a panel filled with candidates mainly from Miami-Dade who would discuss their experience running for seats.
Some of the key speakers at the event include Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Miami-Dade District 8 Commissioner Danielle Cohen-Higgins, Florida Democratic Chair Nikki Fried and Sarasota County school board member Liz Barker. In the 2024 election cycle, Barker flipped the school board seat from red to blue.
“Sarasota is a very difficult place to win elections as a Democrat,” said Diamond. “We stuck to the issues. We found a good candidate. We supported her through Election Day.”
Last year during the election season, around 250 people attended the Catalyst Conference and Gala. This year, Diamond says, the number has increased to 300.
“There's kind of a feeling in Florida that the politics here is very tough, but I can attest to you that the enthusiasm is on the ground,” said Diamond. “People want to engage and make a difference here.”
