As national attention focused on Florida last week, AFP-Florida prepared for three days of jam packed events in Orlando. Hundreds of you joined us for the Presidency 5 Presidential Debate and straw poll, the speeches and educational sessions of CPAC, and one of the highlights of the weekend – the truly inspirational Florida AFP Foundation “Suite Tea” Breakfast with Andrew Breitbart.

Patriots were out in full force! We too were on-sight distributing t-shirts and educational materials, as well as our ever-so-popular “It’s the Spending, Stupid!” buttons. We handed out 3,500 of them and they became a prominent fixture on lapels and sweaters throughout the weekend. If you have a picture of you and your friends wearing one of our buttons or shirts please email us at info.fl@afphq.org. You can see the pictures we have already received posted here.

Friday morning started off with an amazing treat – as AFP-Foundation partnered with the Tea Party Hospitality Suite to put on a breakfast with Andrew Breitbart. Breitbart was joined by ACORN Whistleblower Anita MonCrief and Radical leftist turned-Patriot Brandon Darby.

Suite Tea BreakfastThe stories these speakers told about their experiences inside the leftist machine are truly eye-opening. The stand they have each taken, publicly calling out corruption and lies, is inspiring. This sold out event was incredible and for anyone that wasn’t able to attend, we will be posting video footage of the full speech in the coming weeks. In the meantime, you can see pictures from the event here.

AFPF-FL was thrilled to also present four RightOnline training sessions at CPAC on Friday. Sessions included Social Media 101, Pushing the Narrative, Investigative Reporting, and Using Humor Effectively. Thank you to Jordan Raynor of Engage, Erik Telford and Kelly Carson of The Franklin Center, Guy Benson of Townhall.com, Stephen Kruiser of PJTV, Alice Linahan of Voices Empower and Anita MonCrief of the Boots of Liberty Taskforce (BOLT) for their fantastic presentations.

RightOnlineThe training sessions were a huge success and we have received multiple requests for the sessions to be posted by activists that couldn’t make it to the event. These sessions will be posted on our website and Facebook page in the coming weeks. Access the RightOnline photo gallery here.

For all of you fortunate enough to have attended Presidency 5 and CPAC last week, you know what an amazing three days it was. The force of the Tea Party was made clear with a triumphant straw poll win by Tea Party favorite Herman Cain, who just so happened to have been endorsed by Florida AFP Legislator of the Year Rep. Scott Plakon at a huge rally earlier in the day. The message sent to the political mainstream was clear – the power of the grassroots patriot movement is loud and Florida has a significant role to play in the 2012 elections. This is why it is so important that the grassroots movement in Florida continues to build and spread the message of limited government, lower taxes, fiscal restraint and free markets!