Florida
Related: About this forumWill FL Democrats finally be able to break through and make major legislative gains?
Last edited Sun Apr 5, 2020, 12:02 PM - Edit history (1)
For over 20 years FL has been ruled by Republicans. The legislature and the governors office have been owned by the GOP since the 1990s.
But Democrats running for the legislature should tie the terrible response by DeSantis to all GOP candidates for local and state office.
The unemployment compensation website is a disaster and that will impact hundreds of thousands of workers.
The slow response by the state government to this pandemic has been lackluster at best. Not shutting down beaches, scenes of crowded beaches, should be in every campaign commercial.
FL Dem candidates need to take the lead NOW and start wearing homemade face masks in public. They ought to act NOW and start calling for protections to our public health and public schools. Paint the GOP as slaves to corporate America because there will be revenue shortfalls and the GOP WILL balance the budget on the backs of the poor and middle class. The FL Dems need to call for an expansion of Medicaid.
In short, FL Dems are being handed the 2020 election on a silver platter. They cant squander it or we will have another decade of GOP rule after gerrymandering.
Chainfire
(17,757 posts)Rural North Fl. are red hat wearing, bible thumping, Trump lovers. The strong Hispanic populations of SE Florida still haven't forgiven Democrats for the Bay Of Pigs, the people in Central Florida are retirees with enough money to retire to Florida and are generally strong Republicans.
These groups will not hold Trump responsible for a terrible mishandling of the crisis. Look back, we are a state where college educated women voted for Trump.....DeSantis is a Trump clone, and the conservatives love him for it. Florida is an Alabama, Georgia or Arkansas that dresses well and wears makeup.
We have little islands of people who will vote for Democrats, usually centered around universities, but there is not enough of them to overcome the Trumpettes.
I have lived in Florida all of my 70 years, and I see nothing about to change.
OrlandoDem2
(2,234 posts)They also dont know how to run up the vote totals where it counts.
We wont win SW FL or the Panhandle anytime soon. But there has to be a strategy to cut our losses there.
Conversely, we need to drive up the vote totals in SoFla, Orange, and Hillsborough counties.
We were a needles with from taking a state Senate seat in 2018 that could make a difference in bills coming out of the legislature. We are close in other districts as well. Its about precision vote counting. Someone has to do it.
The issues are there if the FL Democratic Party starts beating the drum now. Frame the issues now and we have a chance.
CaptainTruth
(7,143 posts)If he loses the next election, that will be why.
Also, Nikki Fried, our Agriculture Commissioner & only statewide elected Democrat has really been going after him, so much so that I won't be surprised at all if she runs for governor.
OrlandoDem2
(2,234 posts)She could help cut the margins in the rural counties. The job she and her team will have is to figure out how to drive up the vote in the large urban counties.