Florida Republicans have officially made history and sent the Dem Party to political oblivion by outnumbering registered Florida Democrats for the first time in state history. It was a long-term project, a decade in the making pushed over the finish line by Governor DeSantis financially backing the effort by donating $2 million.
To put this in perspective, the Democrats have been cleaning the GOP’s clock in the voter registration so badly that in 2008, when Obama carried Florida by 200,000 votes, there were 700,000 more registered Dems than Republicans.
The numbers have gone down since then, but the Florida elections have only been close because of the Dems huge registration advantage.
With the reverse now the reality on the ground it is hard to see how the Dems can win a statewide race.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said: “Today for the first time in the history of Florida we’ve now overtaken Democrats.
The Republican Party of Florida’s executive director, Helen Aguirre Ferré, said, “The level of enthusiasm in support of registering Republicans is unprecedented, and this is a true milestone moment in Florida’s history,” Ferré said.
From The Hill:
But that advantage has eroded over the years as the GOP invested heavily in bulking up its numbers in the state. Democrats, meanwhile, have long complained that the state party lacked a cohesive and long-term voter registration strategy.
The GOP’s newfound voter registration advantage is likely to throw the state Democratic Party’s challenges into even starker relief. Democrats have suffered a series of disappointing defeats in Florida in recent cycles, often losing key races by razor-thin margins.
The 2020 election proved particularly devastating for Florida Democrats. Former President Trump not only carried the state for a second time in a row, but won it by more than 3 percentage points – a veritable landslide by Sunshine State standards.
Democrats also lost two South Florida House seats that they had managed to flip in 2018, as many voters in Miami-Dade County swung to the right.
Watch: Governor DeSantis speaks at the National Conference of State Legislatures.https://t.co/rgm8RUO5UD
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) November 5, 2021
Governor DeSantis is at Cecil Field in Duval County announcing a Job Growth Grant Fund award.
Watch: https://t.co/gXzdvp3EC8
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) November 4, 2021
