Democrats Have Lost Another State, As Florida Has Officially Turned Red

Democrats have received more negative luck as they brace for the midterm elections in 2022 and the presidential election in 2024. The Republican Party has grabbed the lead and turned Florida into a solid red state, which might be disastrous for Democrats. According to voter registration statistics obtained by the state and shared with POLITICO, there are presently 6,035 more Republicans registered than Democrats out of 14.3 million active eligible voters. Each party has over 5.1 million registered voters. Democrats, who formerly had good control at all levels of the government until Republicans took control of the Legislature and the governor’s house in the 1990s, enjoyed a significant advantage in voter registration only a few years ago.

Democrats held a roughly 568,000 voter edge in the 2010 midterm elections, despite the tea party surge and Rick Scott’s victory as governor. In 2018, DeSantis narrowly defeated former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum by more than 32,000 votes to become the state’s 46th governor. Democrats were also more than 134,000 registered voters ahead of Republicans in the state last year, when President Donald Trump easily beat Joe Biden. DeSantis, who has pushed the Republican Party of Florida to expand its registration efforts and even contributed $2 million to the effort, correctly predicted earlier this month that his party had surpassed Democrats, a factor he attributed in part to people migrating to Florida as a result of anti-lockdown, anti-mandate policies he has advocated.

According to the data, registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 700,000 voters in 2008. Republicans now lag registered Democrats by about 23,000 votes. Democrats, according to Steve Schale, a longtime Florida Democratic strategist, might be in big difficulty in the future. “Without a full-frontal, professional, and responsible partisan effort to turn it around, there will be more Republicans registered in Florida than Democrats by the end of this year,” Schale wrote on his blog. Republicans are well aware of their enormous victories and have no intention of slowing down.

Democrats in Florida are a minority, and that minority is certain to expand after the GOP-controlled legislature begins redistricting later this year, further behind them and making it much more difficult for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to maintain her iron hold on the lower chamber. That massive rise, on the other hand, makes it much more likely that Republicans, who control 16 of the state legislature’s 27 seats, will be looking hard and fast at redistricting in a way that will help cement in a GOP majority for years to come. One of the districts that might be eliminated is Florida’s 13th Congressional District, which is now represented by Rep. Charlie Crist, a Republican-turned-Democrat and former governor who is facing DeSantis next year.