With less than a month remaining until the 2026 midterm elections, the NAACP is creating a legal war room to safeguard voters across the country, including Florida.
The prominent civil rights group said Monday it is also running a multi-million-dollar "Get Out the Vote" campaign targeting more than 6.5 million voters across 33 congressional districts in Florida and 13 additional states. The two Florida districts are FL-14 in Tampa and FL-25 in South Florida (Democrat Jared Moskowitz vs. Republican Scott Singer.)
In Florida, the Legislature took the rare move of redistricting mid-decade, leaving the state with only one Black-majority district, Florida's 24th. It was part of a nationwide strategy President Trump pushed last summer try to to prevent losses in the 2026 midterms. The latest data shows that Blacks comprise about 12% of Florida's registered voters.
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The NAACP's voter protection initiative will be led by NAACP General Counsel Kristen Clarke, who previously served as the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice.
"We cannot buy into the fear," said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, in a statement. "Donald Trump wants us to be afraid, because he is a deeply unpopular president. He's afraid of losing his grip on Congress, so he wants us to stay home and make it harder to vote. Real power belongs to the people, and the NAACP is ready to protect all voters when they go and cast their ballots."
The war room, which opens Oct. 24, will be a central hub for the civil rights organization's aggressive "Election Protection" program.
The campaign will operate nationally, but will concentrate heavily on 16 priority states that include Florida. The others are Arizona, California, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Mississippi.
The election protection effort will include a dedicated phone hotline, email channels, and digital reporting forms for voters to flag issues of alleged voter intimidation, suppression, or operational hurdles at polling locations.
The legal mobilization follows a recent lawsuit filed by an NAACP-led coalition against the Trump Administration aimed at blocking the deployment of federal agents to polling places.
"Voting is our sword and our shield," said Dominik Whitehead, Chief of Field, Membership Growth and Unit Sustainability at the NAACP. "For the next 40 days, we are going to be relentless in ensuring our communities have the information, resources, protection, and support they need to participate in this election."
The Get-Out-The-Vote campaign will include canvassing, phone banking, door knocking, and digital outreach. The NAACP reports it has recruited over 52,000 volunteers nationwide — more than double its initial goal of 20,000.
The organization launched National Black Man Voter Day alongside the National Urban League and 100 Black Men of America as among its partners. Its aim is to mobilize 100,000 Black men ahead of early voting on October 24.
