Hillsborough's (FL) blue trend likely to continue
Hillsborough County used to be two distinctly different places politically. It was solid blue inside the Tampa city limits, but once you ventured into the county’s unincorporated areas, it became increasingly red.
The demarcation line led to Republican control of the County Commission for 14 years until 2018. That ended when Democrats Kimberly Overman and Mariella Smith won elections and gave their party 4-3 control. Smith solidly won her countywide race against long-time GOP Commissioner Victor Crist.
Local observers had predicted that Hillsborough’s suburbs were turning purple and even light blue. We saw that play out in 2016 when Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 7 points in the county.
Hillsborough also chose Andrew Gillum over Ron DeSantis.
As they say, though, all politics is local. Those 2018 Commission races were the strongest evidence things have indeed changed.
hat makeover could continue in this election as prospects look good for Democrats. The District 6 Commission race will tell us if Dems can land the knockout punch.
That’s where incumbent Democrat Pat Kemp is running against Republican Sandra Murman, a fixture in the Hillsborough political scene for many years. Murman has to leave her District 1 seat because of term limits. We’ll get to that in a minute.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/379855-joe-henderson-hillsboroughs-blue-trend-likely-to-continue
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