Once a bellwether state, Florida is now officially red.
While the state has been drifting away from the left for years now, for the first time ever, registered Republicans now outnumber registered Democrats.
As the Miami Herald reports:
Florida Republicans have officially reached a milestone they’ve been trending toward for nearly a decade — outnumbering registered Florida Democrats for the first time in state history.
DeSantis has financially backed the party’s voter registration effort, donating $2 million, according to Politico. In 2008, assisted both by the campaign of former President Barack Obama and his popularity, Florida Democrats had an advantage of nearly 700,000 voters over registered Republicans. But every year since 2012, the gap between registered Democrats and Republicans has narrowed.
As of this September, Democrats only had about 24,000 more voters registered. The Republican Party of Florida’s executive director, Helen Aguirre Ferré, said on Friday that the governor’s policies have pushed people to the party. She also said previously that Democrats’ messaging has driven voters to Republicans, especially Hispanic voters as of late who have concerns about socialism.
How about some GOOD NEWS!! Florida has officially flipped!
There are now more registered Republicans than Democrats for the first time in Florida history! ? #LetGoBrandon #RedWave pic.twitter.com/9xUaHLiw1B— James Sheets (@jwsheets) November 5, 2021
Florida’s “bellwether” status was officially lost in the 2020 election, marking the first time since 1992 that the state didn’t vote for the candidate later declared victorious.
Republicans currently have a 24-16 majority in Florida’s state senate, and 78-42 majority in Florida’s state House. In the U.S. House of Representatives, of Florida’s 27 seats, 16 are held by Republicans, 10 are held Democrats, and one seat is unfilled (in an overwhelmingly Democrat district).
Governor Ron DeSantis currently leads all his potential 2022 challengers by double digits, and so hopeless is the case for Democrats that the Democratic Governors Association won’t be funding any candidates in the Florida gubernatorial race.
Florida’s choice of governors also reflects their right-shift, as they haven’t had a Democrat governor in over two decades (though to be fair, Charlie Crist was one of the “Republicans”).
Matt Palumbo is the author of The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros
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