A former spokesperson for former President Barack Obama sounded the alarm over the recent trends in Florida following its red wave, concluding that Democrats must “reset” or “go extinct” in the Sunshine State.
“At the rate Florida is going, an NPA candidate for governor may have a better shot than a Democrat in 2026. It’s that bad,” former Obama spokesperson Kevin Cate said Tuesday afternoon. “Complete collapse. We either reset or go extinct.”
Cate’s remark coincided with early voting data revealing Republicans showing up in big ways in Florida, even making gains in historically blue counties such as Miami-Dade.
Prior to polls closing, Republicans held the edge in Miami-Dade, particularly, as other traditionally blue counties showed similar trends:
In the end, Gov. Ron DeSantis took traditionally blue counties such as Miami-Dade and Palm Beach. Perhaps what is more, he defeated Crist by over 1.5 million votes statewide. For greater perspective, in 2018, DeSantis defeated Democrat Andrew Gillum by just 32,463 votes.
Florida’s red wave, some believe, was years in the making, as Republicans finally overtook Democrats in terms of voter registration statewide in November 2021, following Gov. Ron DeSantis’s leadership amid the Chinese coronavirus pandemic. On Election Day, for the first time ever, registered Republicans had a 300,000-voter advantage over Democrats.
“And even though we’ve never had an election in Florida history [where] we’ve had more Republicans than Democrats, this November, we will now have over 300,000 more Republicans than Democrats,” DeSantis said in October, also detailing “massive gains in Miami-Dade,” “major gains in Palm Beach,” and smaller gains in Broward.
“Now, thanks to the overwhelming support of the people of Florida … we have rewritten the political map,” DeSantis said during his victory speech, adding that it is “apparent that this election, we will have garnered a significant number of votes from people who may not have voted for me four years ago.”