Florida’s election results on Tuesday confirmed what many local political experts have known for a long time: the state is no longer competitive for Democrats.
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis won reelection by a roughly 20-point margin, and he is now being touted as a leading 2024 presidential candidate.
Two-thirds of supermajorities were secured by Republicans in both chambers of the state legislature.
If Republicans win control of the House of Representatives, it will be due in no small part to the addition of four seats in Florida.
For the first time in modern history, no Democrat will be elected statewide in Florida. We are currently a red state or at least a state that leans fairly red.
Florida went red in 2020, with Trump’s margin against Hillary Clinton increasing from 2016.
There has been a tilt to the right among Hispanic voters in the state, especially in the Cuban and Venezuelan communities surrounding the former Democratic bastion of Miami.
During the Trump administration, the Florida Republican Party machinery expanded as the former president transformed his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach into the “Winter White House.”
Democrats are not optimistic about their ability to make Florida a legitimate competitive state again in the near future.
At the very least, they aim to prevent Republican advances in 2024.
What went wrong for Florida Democrats?
Tuesday, Democrats failed to maintain a majority in the ordinarily blue county of Miami-Dade.
Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Attorney General Ashley Moody were all victorious in the county, as were three of the four congressional districts.
Even though Clinton lost the state in 2016, she still won Miami-Dade County by over 30 points, whereas previous President Barack Obama carried the county by nearly 24 points in 2012.
The fact that Republicans won the largest county and expanded their reach over the entire state is monumental.
It is a crisis waiting to happen for the Democratic Party.
They cannot win Florida without Miami-Dade,” said Kevin Cabrera, a newly elected member of the Miami-Dade County Commission and former Florida state director for Trump’s 2020 campaign.
Republicans assert that Florida Democrats have fallen on their own sword by pursuing what they incorrectly define as “socialist” ideals that do not resonate with Florida residents.
Cabrera mentioned Democrats’ Covid-19 shutdowns and vaccination requirements, excessive taxation, and “not allowing parents to have a choice regarding their children’s education,” referring to contentious debates over the extent to which LGBTQ topics and racism can be handled in schools.
In actuality, Floridians’ opinion of Democrats may have less to do with Democrats’ ideas and more to do with Republican propaganda that has been incredibly effective.
The Republican Party has deliberately worked to establish the “socialist” moniker.
Trump used Spanish-language commercials in 2020 comparing Biden to violent Latin American dictators like Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, and Nicolás Maduro in an attempt to prey on the anxieties of Latinos whose families fled failed socialist governments.
“The fastest-growing group of voters in Florida is Hispanics, and the vast majority of Hispanics come from countries fleeing socialism and other left-wing ideals.
“They are not coming to Florida to obtain more of that,” added Cabrera.
It has been difficult for Democrats to combat this perception fostered by Republicans.
First, Shaw believes that Florida Hispanics have not received a sufficiently customized message clarifying the party’s economic views.
Shaw stated that Democrats must prioritize discussing economic mobility, small businesses, having good jobs, and creating wealth.
Also in chaos is the Democratic political machine in Florida.
When Democrat Manny Diaz, the former mayor of Miami, inherited the job of state party chair following the 2020 election, he told NPR that the party was in “survival mode” due to a mountain of debt and liabilities.
Even the employees’ health insurance had expired.
After nearly two years, the state party is still reconstructing.
Democrats remain underfunded in Florida, lagging Republicans by approximately $170 million in funding for the four non-federal statewide elections this year, and Tuesday’s election results reflect this.
Nevertheless, Shaw is uncertain as to whether national Democrats would be better suited investing their money in Florida than in other states, considering their success in other parts of the country: “It’s evident that we were abandoned, and that’s part of the reason why what happened occurred.
“The future will reveal whether or not it was a wise decision,” he remarked.
In Florida, it may be too late for Democratic investment to be worthwhile.
Shaw stated that Republican politicians are currently winning by running so far to the right that they are “attempting to out-Texas Texas.
Republicans in the state legislature, for instance, approved their “Don’t Say Gay” bill earlier this year, which prohibits teachers from discussing LGBTQ+ issues or persons, and a bill banning transgender women and girls from participating in school sports.
DeSantis gained national attention when he transported migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in an attempt to score political points against the border policy of the Biden administration.
