love to see what they can do with a real fighting chance.

Last edited Thu Apr 27, 2023, 08:36 PM - Edit history (1)

and been hoping others would show up.

Corporate media really did a hit job on him at the time. Obsessing and focusing on some of his quirks, that were very minor and harmless, like his note taking or his ties. And Floridians loved his ties. His work days were a big hit also.

But Florida used to have a lot of colorful character in the Democratic Party, who were very successful. "Walking" Lawton Chiles for instance. Hell even Bill Nelson started out being a lot more fired up than the whimper of his last race. As a child my mother brought me along to campaign with him as one of Nelson's Neighbors.

Run with Republican policy and people will vote Republican.

long national shadows. It seems like the Party's collapse began with the triangulating of urban Democratic areas against the abandonment of the rest of the state. From the mid-2000's on, the Party seemed to be adrift and unable to inspire the Democratic voters of Florida.

I can remember out motorcycle riding in the country in South Florida one day. I came upon a billboard announcing a tract of farm land up for sale. it said, "Contact Jeb Busn" and I had a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach that things were going to get bad. I was right.

For his seat.

A frickin disaster move.

Let’s hope the local Democratic Party does better in the coming months before 2024 election.

we just had an election in Jacksonville. We could have possibly had a democratic mayor if the highest polling democratic candidate was the only democrat running. Donna Deegan was polling in the mid 40s. But a second democratic candidate, Audrey Gibson, stayed in the race, she was only polling about 15%. Both candidates under preformed from their polling (39.4% and 8.6%) but I have to wonder if there was just one candidate that the party could have really pushed when the GOP was split with several candidates, could Donna have won outright rather want have a runoff? It's things like this that really seem to bedevil the party here.

The Dem party infrastructure was left to collapse there as it did in Florida and other crucial states after 2000 election.Terry McAuliffe was a DC centric party chair from 2001-2005, who cared most about funding and furnishing the new national headquarters. His leadership on party infrastructure in the swing states was practically non-existent.

to disagree with saying the party is not at fault. There are plenty of self inflicted wounds- missed opportunities, infighting, just plain bad decisions, etc., that have been a mainstay of the Florida Democratic Party for a very long time. And while I am a progressive, this is not a one sided thing. I am not sure how useful going into examples or details would be, but can if it would be useful.

I really am less trying to bash the party as I am trying to acknowledge that the party has had terrible issues, but it doesn't have to continue to. I really do want the new party chair, Nikki Fried to have the support and resources to mount a turn around for the party and the state.

we sure as hell do now. I would love to see Nikki Fried working out of the 22nd Fl. of the Capitol, and I would be happy to donate time and money to see it happen.

No Floridian in their right mind would vote for El Douche again for any office, so that leaves him with nothing but the hard Republican vote, and that may not be enough for him to continue his career either as governor (after changing term limit laws) or going after Scott or Rubio seat.

when it looked like a democrat could win if the seat wasn't held by an incumbent. And incumbency is a real advantage.

The OP was useful in understanding what's happening there.

...about the 50-state strategy. We wouldn't always get the candidates that we really want in states like FL or WV, but at least we would have (hopefully) reliable votes on things like labor issues.

against Dean was a huge, self inflicted wound to the party. Disastrous is an understatement. But hey at least we got the redesign of the party logo under Kaine, right?

How that YEaaaahhhhhh sunk Dean as a candidate, in comparison to some of the stuff Trump said and did before he won. One little YEaaaahhh and you’re bat-shit crazy and can no longer be trusted but mocking people in wheelchairs, grabbing women by the hooha and telling supporters their legal fees will be paid if they bash in the faces of protesters…we’re now good with that?

Details at 11 blurb. Somehow word got out immediately and everywhere that this was going to be the spin. And they all ran with it.

More right-wing ratfucking

He understood where things were headed just after the Gingrich revolution. He knew that the GOP had started to really focus on the local party action, school boards, city/town councils, sheriffs, etc.

But here we are.

Good luck Fla, I hope it works out for you.

We do need you back, but damn…

"focus on the local party action, school boards, city/town councils, sheriffs, etc" long before Gingrich.

Some of us tried to warn everyone. Nobody would listen. Not even other Democrats.

Just like people ignored long-time women's rights activists about the traitor party wanting to take away abortion, and how they wouldn't stop there. They would go for Griswold next--and more.

Are you listening now?

None of them were truly committed to Democratic ideals. It was a Florida thing. Capitulation for Capitalist profit.

DINOs

of whom were conservative democrats, but they didn't switch parties after Reagan and they did pass some really good laws. Generalities here, not saying they pooped rainbows. But from about the time Jeb became governor, and I believe the house and senate had already flipped to GOP control, the Democratic Party seemed to fall apart in Florida. Slowly less and less wins. Nelson and Graham were hold overs from before, but beyond that I can't really think of a democratic official of any note. Corrine Brown? And we know how that worked out.

But it's not all doom and gloom. I do like Al Lawson, who took Brown's seat. Here in Jacksonville Angie Nixon looks like she could have a bright future. I'd love to see here at a state level position or in congress. Just as examples. What are your thoughts about Nikki Fried?

It really comes down to whoever can shake up the good ole boys and still manage to survive the barrage of defamation and misinformation that will come from the right, and some Center Dems.

It helps to have the media on your side, and to have a candidate that is beyond reproach. Seriously, someone like Cesar Chavez.

So, I will continue to wait and see.

Jacksonville right before the local election, and has a history here. Got arrested protesting the new abortion laws. Just took a swing at the current Jacksonville mayor for a garbage tweet by the mayor. Only held the position for a short time, I hope she can do some real good, but at least so far she seems to be trying.

She needs to do two things. Connect with progressives. And connect with minority groups. And the two are not mutually inclusive.

White progressives might abstractly approve of fighting for minorities, but the two are very separated in their daily lives. Even I have had difficulty connecting with minority groups. And by that, I mean interacting in a social manner, where we can both build confidence with each other. One of the things in my life that I found impeded a good connection is that they don't want negative attention. For example, I worked with a latino once and it was obvious that the white workers were profiting from work that he performed. It may have had something to do with spiffs, which are monetary incentives for selling certain products. So I took it to the boss and ratted out the white workers who were exploiting him. This is something I learned from the good ole boy boss from the last job I worked in. He said to always bitch up. That means, that sitting around in your foxhole complaining about the situation around you isn't going to change anything.

Anyway, I learned something important that day when I saw my latino friend. He was mortified. He said, look, I have a wife and kids. I have a family to take care of. Why did you do that to me?

So, even though I am latina, I recognize that my reality base is different than many others. The only thing I can do is listen and try to show them support and sympathy in the foxhole. Except, that once I stopped working, I was no longer in the foxhole.

And white progressives need Field exercises to reach out to minority groups. I'll give you a for instance. Over the course of thirty years we have accumulated a lot of stuff, which resulted in donations. We made it through the baby stage, young adult stage and now we're in the get comfortable for ourselves stage. In those years we packed up two or three sets of furniture and donated, mostly to Goodwill because it was most convenient. And some of it was really nice furniture, but we wanted more functional pieces.

The last major cleanout involved clothes, shoes, purses and other daily use items. About twenty years of accumulated stuff. Even dry-cleaned suits and clothes that we would never wear again. But I didn't want to donate to Goodwill. I wanted to put it in the hands of the people who could use it. And I knew who I was going to call.

About a year ago we had workers at the house and my husband took the name of the guy who was obviously in charge of the crew. It was a good crew. A latino crew. The foreman showed me pictures to show me how they reach out to people in need in their community. So, we called him to come and collect the boxes, knowing full well that it was probably going to be dispersed to migrant workers because that's the area where he lives.

This was not a far-reaching thing for me to do, because my father and I drove down to Homestead to drop off my mother's clothes after she died, knowing full well that it would or should help the people in migrant worker camps. I think it was also a Goodwill. They let us go in the back to drop off the boxes and I remember seeing a huge pile of Christmas presents that were never open. People had gone through the trouble of buying presents for kids, wrapped them and labeled them for the appropriate age group, but they never made it to a child by Christmas. There must have been over 300 presents in the pile and only one lone child walking through it, looking for an age appropriate gift.

So, I made the call, the guy came by and picked up the boxes. But what I'm getting at, is this: The very few white progressives that i know, don't seem to fully comprehend my connection to latino groups. And who can blame them, because I came from the generation that tried to fit into white circles, since that was a road that looked like it had a future. And our school education made that assimilation easier by white washing the Anglo-American world, making it look like it was a desirable objective. So, when I told a progressive friend that I was going to donate to someone who had connections to migrant workers, she didn't hide her surprise. It was like it hadn't occurred to her that such thing was possible nor that I would think of doing it. That look on her face just made me more aware of the major gap there is between progressives and the very people who could use their help.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Hope you can pull something helpful out of that.

The local democratic party considered me some kind of barmy because I, a white woman, dared to say that we needed to go to the black community to register any non-voters, maybe even get some insight about what would get even the apathetic registered to vote while we were at it. They said I wouldn't be safe, insisted on sending out "protection" with me, but I told them that racist assumption was why the party was having such a hard time getting blacks to turn out on voting day. Would they trust someone who automatically thought where they lived was dangerous, simply because it was a black neighbourhood? I wouldn't.

So off I went, without "protection." In the main town, the little villages around the town, and the loneliest outposts, I was out there, listening to them on their turf.

Key to getting doors to open to pasty white me was ignoring the typical black ministers that the party pandered to, and going to the local matriarchs that every single black community had. Miss Wanda, as I would always think of her from the first one I met, was the elder woman everyone looked up to and heeded...but that the Democratic party didn't even know existed.

Seeing a hostile eye staring back at me around a cracked open door, I'd only have to say, "I was talking to Miss Wanda, and she said you might be interested in..." And the door would open all the way. I'd get invited in. Sometimes, I'd even get cookies and lemonade (summer) or coffee (fall)! Once I was inside, then it took very little to persuade most people to fill out a registration form. But I never would have gotten that signature if it wasn't for Miss Wanda being in my court. Well, in my court once I persuaded her that I wasn't there simply to use "her" people for votes, that I really did care to hear what they had to say and wasn't doing the ego stroke of that stupid white saviour nonsense. Then I was gold.

I found Miss Wanda because I had started getting my nails done at one of the black salons after popping in there a few times to register voters. The manicurist did great manicures, sure, but the shop was also tops for getting inside info about the locals. One afternoon, she asked me, "Why are you talking only to people in town? Lots of us don't live here, but might want to vote."

I apologized to her for not considering it, but I didn't think I knew anybody who lived outside of town. Where should I start? She didn't even hesitate.

"Miss Wanda, over at the AME church off {state road}. She's there every Monday doing the Lord's work of keeping the church looking pretty. Talk to her. When you want black people to listen, you always start with the queen."

I thought she was exaggerating about the queen part, but she wasn't. Miss Wanda (and don't you call her anything else, even if she's been married 46 years!) was indeed a queen in her community. When she spoke, people listened--and maybe not obeyed, but heeded. Nothing happened in her realm that she didn't know about or have a say about. Almost always, she not only was much more accessible than any of the ministers, but also had better insights into the people of her domain: what their needs were, what they cared about, what motivated them.

All summer and into the fall, I had this spider sense that cultivating the county's Miss Wandas might be the magic key to turn out the vote, and that feeling turned out to be correct. The election showed a modest increase in black turnout. It wasn't a great increase by any means, but it was far better than being stuck in the bog as it had been for years before that. It was a start, and a hopeful one.

That's the kind of power black women have in their communities that I bumbled and stumbled my way into discovering, but Democrats ignore realities like that, over and over.

Worst of all, the county party that had thought me nuts? I had to move not long after the election, and they let my efforts wither on the vine. They couldn't be arsed to tap into the vast network of black women community leaders I literally put at their feet. Before I left, I even offered to make introductions to help both sides feel more comfortable with each other and get to work from there.

Not one person at the party took me up on it.

I understood after that why no black people were ever at party HQ, as in they knew racists when they saw them, better than anyone. Yeah, the black community appreciated my outreach, but some of them rightfully called me a "damned fool," because they were cynical about any long term good it would do to get involved with the local Democrats.

I hated that the cynics were right about not trusting the party, but I didn't blame them for feeling that way in the least. If anything, I felt like I betrayed them when I couldn't stay, that I had been arrogant and cruel to give people hope that only got snatched away, because some things (like racism) are so much bigger than I'll ever be. I know that's selfish and a mite egomaniacal, but it's how I felt.

I think the party is a bit more enlightened now than they were back then (80s), but they can still be gobsmacking clueless about the minorities they depend on to win elections.

I fear that there might be some Florida backwater nonsense that someone needs to wade through before those kind of networks finally pay off. Where you witnessed old white guys that didn't even want to venture into minority voting areas, in Florida they do everything to undermine grassroots efforts by co-opting their leaders. And, yes, I'm talking about old guard Dems. They don't necessarily want anyone that rocks the boat too much. They want someone who will be happy with the bones that they throw at him. Too many fiefdoms to protect.

As soon as a young minority member begins to stand out, they go and woo him. They find out what he wants and they give it to him. Whether that is photographing beauty contests or running in the local filming industry. No doubt that someone who stands out politically, with the intention of representing his people, will also have other interests and talents. So they take him off course by giving him what he wants.

We need someone in Florida that can look at these old business networks and tell them that the voters are on to them and buzz off. They need to be sorted out of meetings. Including their moles.

They're targeting educated people. People with degrees who can afford places to live and have every satellite TV in the house turned onto Fox News. Yes, MAGA does get their share of uneducated idiots (like Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Three Names), but the fact that educated people are getting flipped is astounding. Like what the actual fuck. Even scarier is that they're targeting kids. Shit, Mike Huckabee has a book called "Trump For Kids".

This is how the Ron DeSantis and Donald Trumps of the world get elected and keep getting elected. They know how to work the right wing media echo chamber in their favor. The propaganda is a massive problem in this country, and I don't see it getting better anytime soon. As long as Fox News and right wing media get control of the GOP things will continue to get worse.

Mainly due to pandering to the right wing "exiles".

Unfortunately, the Dem candidates pander to them with the same talking points.

And you know how it goes ... Use republican talking points and the voters vote for republicans.

Sad.

Less than half the county actually turned out to vote.

Democratic turnout across Florida was pathetic.

The platform of running against those two only encourages people to vote republican, so Dem voters sat it out.

The Dems seem to have abandoned progressive LatAm immigrants (I am one, except I voted D all the way). There are lots of us, but the party seems disinterested.

It is reflected in the manner that Dem candidates pander to them.

I find it interesting that Cuba and Venezuela both espouse (and have created) social infrastructures and safety nets that Dems (supposedly) espouse... except Florida, where they campaign against the core Dem platforms.

DeSantis has accomplished one thing - he's created a mass exodus of Dem voters out of the state.

Stick a fork in Florida for decades, imo. Probably longer.

Surely you are not serious about comparing authoritarian communist dictatorships in Venezuela and Cuba with the liberal political traditions of the Democratic Party in the United States.

Or either party for that matter.

They both have the same RW spin and talking points in defense of the RWers leaving (fleeing) socialist countries and turning Florida red, and your talking point is the de facto position in RW S Florida "exile" politics - both R and D.

Refugees in Florida have experienced what it is like to live in communist/socialist dictatorships and they don't like it one bit.

Hard to blame them for not wanting to live under tyrannies of either right-wing or far-left variations. People don't flee from their homes for no reason.

I took in a political refugee who fled Pinochet's right-wing dictatorship in Chile during the early 80s. I'm consistent in opposing political repression. Far-right or far-left.

Democrats are the party of liberal democracy. We are not the DSA.

Aside from the RW talking points about exiles "fleeing" and the horrors of socialized infrastructures (apparently, and just like the US RW mewls, universal health care and higher ed is authoritarian tyranny that has to be forced on people), I'd love it if you ran for office here.



edit: FYI, I am a Cuban immigrant US citizen.

The claims about "the horrors of socialized infrastructures" is a totally false-frame and insulting as hell.

Whitewashing communist/socialist oppression is a losing proposition among freedom-loving people and is the antithesis of our traditional values as liberal Democrats.

Use the same republican fear mongering talking points and it is a guarantee of republican wins.

The proof is in the pudding. These same talking points moved Miami-Dade from blue to red.

Yet you insist ...

What the hell are you arguing for here?

Damn!

You seem to be arguing for a losing position - And the proof is in the Florida pudding.

Does Saudi or many of the brutal authoritarian M.E./N African nations we support ring a bell?

Hypocrisy abounds.

I am arguing, as a Florida Cuban-American, for policies and talking points that yields wins for Dems.

You seem to be arguing for the status quo that loses Dem elections in Fla.

I don't think that is either a winning electoral formula (in fact it would represent political suicide) or that it conforms with the values of the liberal Democratic Party.

Accusing Democrats of being "right-wing" because they oppose authoritarianism is quite a charge.

Are you for real?

Let me ask ... you've lived in Cuba when? Been to Venezuela?

Plus, who is suggesting "Wholehearted support for the dictatorships"? Not me. This is THE RW talking point you are using on me. As absurd as the RW talking point of Marxists controlling the Dem party.

There are other planks and platforms of interest to liberals and progressives other than Maduro and Canal-Diaz. You are aware of this?

Come to run for office in Florida using the same talking points as republicans, but, don't expect to get a win.
Use the same republican talking points, and people will vote republican. Florida is proof positive of this.

Cheers

The Democratic Party is NOT run by Marxists. Not in Florida, or anywhere else.

We are a liberal democratic party.

You want to stick to using the same policy planks as the GOP.

I want to move on to the Democratic planks that liberals want and need - expansion of the social infrastructures, like health care, child care and education - and away from what has lost Miami-Dade to the GOP.

I live in Florida. Those are my interests and the interests of 99.9% of my Democratic voting friends - NOT the same tired old doggerel of the CONservatives.

This is way out-of-line.

The expansion of the social infrastructures, like health care, child care and education, which I and the Democratic Party support, has nothing to do with supporting dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela, or Nicaragua, which I and my pary do not support).

The Democratic party is not a Marxist party.

Talk about tired old doggerel.

Only you are saying that my position is "supporting dictatorships".

No one is saying that the Dem party should "support" any dictatorship. Not me either.

You are accusing me of that by using the same straw man argument as the right wingers.

I am supporting using DIFFERENT platforms and policies than those of the RW.

Did you support President Obama opening up to normalization of relations with Cuba?

Or, were you accusing him of "supporting dictatorship" like the CONservatives did, same as you are accusing me of claiming (of which I make no claim).

Your straw man argument is as transparent as GOP accusations of the Dem party being controlled by Marxists. Ridiculous.

My position is to attract voters to the Dem party by not using the same talking points as the GOP that Florida Dems seem to do.

The Dem Party of Florida hasn't figured out how to explain the differences between Social Security and Medicare, and seizing and nationalizing oil companies and private property and executing political opponents?

Because, if Floridians really believe that our relatively modest social safety net is anyway equivalent to Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, or Castro's Cuba, then it would be better for us all if Florida would hurry up and sink into the Atlantic.

Joking/pulling your leg, of course.

As I've said, there are progressive/liberal LatAm immigrants like me, but, the campaigns of both parties seem to center around Maduro and Diaz Canal.

Sure, foreign policies are important, but, the more salient platforms and policies are the so-called kitchen table issues. Progressive/liberal LatAm voters don't equate social infrastructure with RW authoritarianism, in fact, they will vote for those platforms.

I mean, does anyone actually think that good universal healthcare and good universal education has to be forced on an unwilling population? Only in right wing world.

Latin America. Zero.

Progressive Democratic social policies (that are support) are NOT Marxism.

Talk about using right-wing talking points!?

So, in a nutshell, what is happening in Florida, is like the Nazis convincing the German people that the Jews are the "real" fascists?

I stand by my statement that we would better off if Florida hurried up and sank into the Atlantic

You have accused me and the Democratic party in FL of being "right-wing" because we don't support communist/socialist dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

And have then attempted to accuse us both of somehow opposing Democratic social programs in
the USA because we don't support those dictatorships abroad. That's unacceptable.

I support and opening with Cuba assuming they make progress on human rights, including ending their persecution of LGBTQ Cubans on the island, in much the same fashion as Barack Obama did.

Your straw man argument is that I have accused the Dem party being controlled by Marxists when I have done the oppose. I have said EXPLICITLY that the Democratic Party in Florida (and everywhere else in the USA) is NOT controlled by Marxists. Nor should it be.

Talk about ridiculous.

Basta.

Where do I say that the Dems should "support dictatorships"?

I don't. Never have.

But here you are again implying that that is what I'm saying.

You seem to be deliberately using this straw man as an argument.

I don't think your are getting the point of my comments of how ridiculous it is that the GOP accuse the Dems of being controlled by Marxists - clearly not the case. As ridiculous as you saying that I advocate "supporting dictatorships". That is just exactly the straw man that the GOPers used on President Obama about normalization steps.

You advocate the same old tired talking points used in S Florida RW "exile" politics. The Dems in Florida do the same thing. And when given the choice of who to vote for between two parties using the same right wing talking points, then they voters will vote for the republicans.

Florida is your proof. The strategy has lost Miami-Dade, and Florida.

And you want to continue this path?

The Democratic Party in FL and the USA generally is NOT controlled by Marxists, nor should it be.

The Democratic social programs that I support as a Democrat are not Marxist or Marxism.

The Cuban dictatorship should stop violating the human rights of LGBTQ Cubans and other Cuban citizens.

The people who have fled Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua have had a first-hand view of living under a communist/socialist autocracy.

I have liberal Democratic values. The FL Democratic party has liberal Democratic values. I'm unsurprised that I take the same stand against authoritarianism that the FL Democratic Party does. Anti-authoritarianism is a Democratic value. Nothing remotely "tired" about supporting human freedom.

We are NOT a communist/socialist political party.

GOP by some party leadership. I really hope Nikki Fried changes this.

So, I don't count on it.

if Democrats and Democratic organizations are will to invest funds and put in the time to engage voters. I think there is room for growth in Florida for Democrats.

Looking at 2022, the Democratic candidates were invisible. Barely seen and barely heard from... and it clearly showed in that pathetic showing of Democratic turnout.

And the national party supports her.

I was born in Florida but I've always been grateful that my parents moved when I was a baby and while trips down there were frequent when I was growing up, my folks didn't move back there until I was long gone.

The Democratic Party in most of the south has been in the shambles you've described since the 60s and the Civil Rights Acts. They not only lost a good portion of their members and most of their voters, having to cede the segregationist bullshit to the GOP cost them most of their identity. Becoming a pallid liberal imitation of the rest of the country didn't appeal to them. The old party of segregationists was an alliance all its own within the south, meaning the rest of the country had a regional bloc to deal with. That was now over.

The Florida party has a golden opportunity now that TFG and De Satan have split the GOP and both have violated all the norms of basic decency, not to mention the spirit and letter of the constitution. I hope they can capitalize on this but I'm not terribly optimistic in the short term.

All the commercials/signs I saw were virtually all Desantis. I voted all D if possible, but I think I might be one of the very few here, even though I consider myself independent. It also doesn't help that it is a closed primary here. But leaving Florida isn't really a good option.

They vote all D all the time. So, not alone. Just very few and far between I guess.

Unfortunately, there are some parts of Lakeland that are as hard red as they can be. I once saw a Three Percenter flag the other day, so it shows how much they really are in that cult.

Write it off and focus on states that are closer to turning Blue. Florida is a lost cause for the foreseeable future. No use throwing money into that horrible sinkhole any longer. Let DeSatan bungle it so badly even the MAGAts start demanding a change. Until then just wall it off and let them go full Purge.

just on the blue ones. And the GOP came for the blue ones. Convert or suppress. It's a long term loosing strategy to play defense. And we are not talking Wyoming, with one house seat and less than one percent of the electoral college. How many states to make up for Florida?

Shit hole state, I'll never go there, who cares let them wither and die bunch of old folks, etc.

Ignoring Florida's 28 seats and electoral votes, being the 3rd largest state is just bad politics and about as shortsighted as it gets.

Obama won here twice. What happened?

Most of the blame goes to the Democratic Party, state and DNC for lack of funding and support.

The Democratic Party cannot save Florida. The citizens of the state should be outraged at what is happening and they should be organizing any way they can to defeat the smarmy bobble head.
A lot of people in Florida are apathetic and don’t try to discuss politics with them because both parties are the same so why should I vote.

same" works for them and against the democrats. But there has been a LOT of incompetence and bad leadership on the state level as well. A functional, funded Democratic Party could do a lot.

Lived in Florida for many years. The state and local leaders used the party as a stepping stone or an ego trip , never community outreach and no platform. I don’t think that is going to change.

Huge numbers of Republican voting retired Boomers have flocked to the state since then, that's a big part of it. This is still going on - places like The Villages and its clones are growing and spreading like weeds.

Having only won the office the first time by a tiny margin, and seemingly having done many things afterwards which would have been thought to alienate independent voters-- I really don't get it...

(except that his policies might seem to have encouraged retiring and well-heeled "fascist friendly" voters from other states to relocate there...)


Perhaps the hurricaines prior to the election helped to depress the Democratic vote?


Something about the numbers seems pretty wrong to me--
maybe it was 'election fraud' ?? That seems like a worthy question in Florida,
when Republicans are in control...

One, Crist was a weak opponent. The GOP here hates him for switching parties and his history is him being a GOP governor. He can over come this in a congressional district but hard to excite people and get out the vote for the warmed over ex-GOP official as your democratic candidate across the state.

Two, weak campaign by Crist. Trump's campaign against DeSnackPack, before Ron has even gotten in the race, is everything that the last two campaigns by democrats against him should have been. Brutal, hard hitting stuff.

Three, Voter suppression laws are still in effect.

Four, Trump was doing a lot of rallies or getting the news promoting candidates. Not for DeSnackPack, but there was a carryover effect. I think Biden did a day or two.

Five, one of the worst latin voter outreaches along with a strong effort by the GOP.

Six, no money. The races were starved of money on the democratic side and the GOP coffers overflowed.

Seven, DeSnackPack's cruelty is catnip to a lot Trump voters, and Trump wasn't against him yet, just pointedly not helping.

Eight, Fox had already started backing Ron

Strong arguments.

Once early voting in Florida began in 2022 DeSantis had some black citizens arrested while they were waiting in line to vote. Unbeknownst to them, they had been taken off the voter rolls. Since they were waiting in line and weren’t on the voter roll it was deemed voter fraud. The early talk was that these “offenders” could be facing $10,000 in legal fees and fines. I don’t know about you but $10,000 seems like a hefty fee to vote. How much did this suppress the vote?

I wouldn’t discount fraudulent elections in some of these red states. If there is one thing we know about Republicans, it is they always seem to be doing exactly what they accuse the other side of doing. DeSantis denied the Justice Department’s request to monitor the vote in certain counties. Seems like the feds were smelling something funny. If you have nothing to hide why deny them monitoring the election? Often something walks like a duck because it is one.

It remains to be seen what Floridians may do (or not do) about it. One thing is certain, though, fascism is progressive, like a cancer, and will continue to metastasize unless it’s wiped out. This is only the beginning, unfortunately

Florida is a magnet for Boomer Republican retirees who ARE moving there in droves.

Also there does appear to be some self-segregating going on as progressives leave because the Republicans get more extreme (or refuse to move there in the first place) on guns, abortion, religious pandering etc.

Independents are the smaller third block, but not by a huge margin either, so they can still swing a lot of races IF they are reached and if there is a good, supported candidate to vote for.

Keep in mind DeSnackPack killed off a lot of his supporters- older, conservative voters, so the influx to some extent is just replacing those. More concerning is the fact that GOP voter registration recently ramped up. After they put in to law measure meant to suppress voter registration drives, so I think there is going to be selective enforcement, they do love to cheat.

Even in blue Palm Beach County, the MAGAs are everywhere.

Come to think of it, the big MAGAt himself lives here.

D candidates. But I think my money is better spent elsewhere. .

I have lots of friends who have moved to south Florida’s east coast from New York (they still summer here) and thought their vote would be more valuable in Florida so they changed their residency. But it’s not and they are left living in a fascist hellhole for 10 months of the years.

My 94 year old mom has been there permanently for 30 years. After she is gone I will be selling her home asap and hoping I never have to set foot in Florida again.

And by less than legal means. I think the State and its electoral systems are completely corrupted and there’s no way any prominent Dem can ever win there because it’s totally rigged. Remember Volusia County.

Damned if I know what to do about it, but having more ACTUAL votes for Dems in FL will do nothing IMO, because they will be negated somehow. And Desantis currently has the keys to whatever that corrupt system is.

non forced errors made the difference in the end. The most notable was Gillum's decision to not spend the last 3 million dollars of his campaign chest. Lost by just under half a point. Disastrous decision. If that money had been spent it is likely DeSantis' career would have been done and Nelson ( who lost by a measly 10,033 votes- and Nelson ran a lack luster campaign) would still be a senator. The redistricting of Florida would have been less gerrymandered. Trump would have looked even weaker. Huge fall out from that mistake.

And Gillum has some real character flaws, even if the corruption charges are not proven, that are very unfortunate. But right until he took his foot off the gas, he had a real chance.

Regardless. IMO, The GOP have the system completely rigged in FL.