The onetime battleground state of Florida has started to lean further toward the Republican Party even as population growth continues to come from left-leaning states.
“Florida’s politics have transformed at a breakneck pace in recent years, becoming more and more conservative even as hundreds of thousands of new residents have poured into the state, often from bluer territory,” the Hill concluded in a recent article on the state’s changing political landscape.
Some of the changes in the Sunshine State are due to the Democrat Party being poorly organized as well as due to the way in which the state handled the coronavirus pandemic. These situations have caused Republican-leaning voters to move into the state.
Nelson Diaz, a Republican lobbyist and former chair of the Miami-Dade County GOP, attributed the political shift to coronavirus policies. He stated, “It made red states redder and blue states bluer. It gave people like [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis a platform to stand for freedom and it gave Democrats in Democrat states a plan to stand for mandates.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks holding his facemask during a press conference to address the rise of coronavirus cases in the state, at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, on July 13, 2020. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
The Hill reported on Florida’s population growth:
Florida’s population growth has been staggering. Between July 2020 and July 2021, the state’s population grew by more than 211,000, a net migration surpassing every other state, according to Census Bureau estimates. Orlando and Jacksonville were among the 10 fastest-growing metropolitan areas between 2010 and 2020.
Many of Florida’s new residents also appear to be coming from more Democratic-leaning states. In 2019 alone, an estimated 28,000 people moved to the Sunshine State from California; 28,000 moved from New Jersey, while a staggering 57,000 moved from New York, according to Census Bureau data from that year.
The Hill emphasized that under DeSantis, the state has favored a more laissez-faire approach when dealing with the coronavirus instead of taking advice from President Joe Biden and health officials on the federal level, who have favored mask mandates, vaccines, and lockdowns. By doing this, the state and DeSantis have received praise from conservatives across the country.
Additionally, post-presidency, former President Donald Trump has moved to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, which has driven Republican candidates, legislatures, and donors to the area when visiting. In fact, socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has even been caught in the Sunshine State, escaping her state’s surge in coronavirus cases and partying in Miami.
A political science professor at the University of Central Florida, Aubrey Jewett, told the Hill that the state’s “rightward shift is also due to longer-term changes,” acknowledging that the Hispanic population has significantly grown. The Republicans have taken Hispanic support away from the Democrat Party — enough so that over 100 Hispanic Republicans are running for Congress in the midterm primaries across the country.
Supporters of President Donald Trump attend a mass caravan named ‘Anticommunist Caravan’ in Miami, Florida October 10, 2020. (Photo by GASTON DE CARDENAS/AFP via Getty Images)
The political science professor noted conservative-leaning seniors and retirees have increasingly moved to the state and that voting bloc “register[s] and they vote.”
“Basically what’s happened is the older senior generation — say the New Deal generation — who were pretty loyal Democrats, they’re dying off and they’re being replaced by the Baby Boomer retirees and many of them are moving to Florida and they’re very Republican,” Jewett added.
In fact, during the 2020 presidential election, Trump led President Joe Biden in Florida by nearly 3.5 percent, which was roughly triple his margin when he ran against Hillary Clinton in 2016, the Hill noted. The onetime Democrat and Hispanic stronghold Miami-Dade County favored Clinton by 30 points in 2016, then in 2020, only four years later, Biden only carried over seven points.
At the end of 2021, the number of registered Republicans also overtook the number of registered Democrats in the Sunshine State, a stark contrast from when Barack Obama won the state during his 2008 presidential election. At the time, there were 700,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.