Exclusive | Florida push to protect hunting, fishing eyed as national model

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Conservative sportsmen scored a major victory in Florida this month, and it’s one that could have legs nationally.

More than 67% of Sunshine State voters approved of Amendment 2, which creates a constitutional right to hunt and fish, memorializing in the Constitution the need to “preserve forever fishing and hunting, including by the use of traditional methods, as a public right and preferred means of responsibly managing and controlling fish and wildlife.”

The amendment easily cleared the 60% threshold amid a climate where other constitutional amendments failed, including liberal pushes for recreational pot and unfettered abortion access and conservative initiatives to make school-board elections partisan and remove public financing from statewide campaigns. 

Florida is now the 24th state with such safeguards in its Constitution. 

And victory, as it goes, had many fathers. They include the in-state Vote Yes on Amendment 2 political committee, which raised more than $1.2 million, as well as the Teddy Roosevelt Action committee, which outlined its strategy in a post-election memo.

“4.5 million text messages and 500,000 mail pieces went to sportsmen and women we identified using data files for license holders in Florida. The results were unprecedented: 25,000 additional anglers and hunters were registered to vote for the first time. 150,000 anglers and hunters signed the pledge to vote — setting the stage to turn low-propensity, infrequent voters into natural core supporters of Amendment 2 in Florida,” writes Luke Hilgemann, International Order of T. Roosevelt executive director.

Also per the memo, “$1.2 million in television advertising” helped “strategically message to the Right, Left, and Center.”

“Florida should serve as a model for the rest of the country. We received more votes for a constitutional right to hunt and fish than any similar amendment has ever received before. We successfully engaged low-propensity voters — often in rural areas — with an issue set to push them to pledge their vote in the November election,” Hilgemann writes. “Using this blueprint, we can begin to focus our efforts next cycle on other key states that lack this right, like Ohio and South Dakota.”

While there was resistance from certain left-leaning conservation groups and Democrats, it was minimal.

Their priority was the reproductive-rights push. 

The left fervently hoped abortion would galvanize underperforming left-of-center voters in a state dominated by GOP registration. To that end, Amendment 2 proponents were able to make their case beyond the Republican base, running more than 10 points ahead of Donald Trump and Sen. Rick Scott on the ballot last week. 

Hilgemann told The Post the group’s “comprehensive campaign that started almost 18 months ago focused on identifying, educating and activating the right segment of voters in Florida to win” by “defining the threat that exists to fishing and hunting.”

“Republican, Democrat or independent in Florida, there was support for fishing and hunting rights being forever protected in our first round of polling, showing it well over 50%. I think what we did is really focus in on that segment of voters that we knew we needed to activate because Florida has 4.4 million anglers and hunters, 1.7 million of them low-propensity or irregular voters,” Hilgemann noted.

That enthusiasm carried through to the election, where the amendment had majority support in all 67 counties, he added, aided by 25,000 new registrations of men under the age of 25 motivated by this issue. 

Florida’s experience was the product of 18 months of engagement on the issue. Hilgemann says it reveals “a proven blueprint” that can be replicated elsewhere.

“Strong support from grassroots and influencers and just starting early defining the threat that we see to our fishing and hunting traditions that’s being pushed by a well funded, organized and determined opposition to our sport is critical to winning these fights moving forward,” he said.