While Republicans took back the White House and the Senate in the 2024 election, nowhere was the GOP dominance more obvious than in Florida, Politico reported on Saturday.
Many conservative Americans fled blue states during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020-2022, and Florida was a key beneficiary of these political migrants. Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist who successfully helped former President Barack Obama win Florida twice, warned the Democrats to find a way to win back southern states.
"If you want to elect presidents from 2032 on, we have to start winning states that we are losing," he said, adding if they don't, it will take "a crazy set of circumstances to win Congress or the presidency."
In 2023, popular Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis dismissed the Democrats in his state collectively as a "dead, rotten carcass on the side of the road." After the 2024 results were in, the GOP dominance has only grown.
But Democrats are somehow even losing Florida statewide offices they had won. On Friday, Republicans in Florida expanded their supermajority in the state House as Democrat Rep. Hillary Cassel announced she was switching her party affiliation to Republican.
Cassel's switch increased the GOP majority in the state House to 87-33 in the 120-seat chamber, Florida House speaker Daniel Perez noted. Cassel was the second Democrat to become a Republican after Rep. Susan Valdes announced she was switching her party affiliation earlier in the month.
Democrat pollster Fernand Amandi was an early realist who said Florida was lost early on.
"I don't think this is a problem that unfortunately Florida Democrats can fix on their own," he said. "It will require the national party and national donors to look hard in the mirror and say, We cannot afford as a party to sacrifice Florida."
Given that it has taken Republicans 25 years to successfully flip Florida to a reliably red state, Democratic consultant Beth Matuga told the outlet that her party should not expect it be any easier for her side.
"Everybody wants a fast, easy solution that makes everyone feel good. But the actual solution is slow, long-term, and sucks," she said.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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