A couple of other Southern states notwithstanding - like in Alabama, where former U.S. Senator Doug Jones, running for governor, ended up losing to Tommy Tuberville twice! - the only place where the Democrats bit the big one in a midterm election this year was Florida.
Gee, what a surprise.
David Jolly, who looked strong enough to finally bring the party's long victory drought in gubernatorial elections to an end, instead brought his own political career to end by losing to Republican Byron Donalds, who in January becomes Florida's first black governor in the same way Antonin Scalia became the first Supreme Court justice of Italian origin and in the same way Chuck Schumer is the first Jewish Senate Majority Leader - nothing to brag about. Angie Nixon, thought to be handicapped by being a democratic socialist in a state that has never been kind to such politicians, was surprisingly and strongly competitive. She still lost to interim senator Ashley Moody, who runs again for a full term in 2028.
I've drawn three conclusions from these results. One is that nominating an ex-Republican from the Tampa-St. Pete area to be the Democratic gubernatorial candidate is not a viable strategy, especially considering that Democrats tried it with Charlie Crist twice. The second is that, even though Nixon is vowing to run again in 2028, she may be as politically dead as Val Demings, another black woman who tried for the Senate from Florida and lost, as Florida Democrats may have buyer's remorse and nominate Alexander Vindman instead.
The third conclusion is that Florida voters are morons.
Florida Democrats fielded their strongest statewide ticket in years, if not decades, and the momentum seemed to be in their favor, but again . . .
The simple fact is that the Republicans have made great strides in Florida over the past few decades, solidifying their base in the northern put of the state even as they have strengthened their ability to compete for Hispanic votes in the central and southern parts of state. The overall growth of Florida's population has also helped; much of that growth has been the result of transplanted Northeasterners and Midwesterners who largely moved there to escape Democratic control of the states they vacated.
The Democrats in Washington and the Democratic Governors’ Association are getting flak for not helping Nixon and Jolly enough, and there is some truth to that analysis, but ultimately the fault for their losses lies with the voters. Florida voters have long been turned off by Democratic policies and love the Republican positions on taxes and the like, even though they vote against their own interests. Morons. Also, Florida Republicans have a way of growing on the residents like mold. Rick Scott is a perfect example. A two-term governor who got narrowly got elected in 2010 despite having ripped off Medicare as a health care executive and narrowly got re-elected in 2014 because all the Democrats had to offer was Charlie Crist, Scott was able to adapt to shifting demographics and politics by reaching out to Puerto Rican voters after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017 and signing gun control legislation after the Parkland school shooting. By the time he ran for the Senate in 2018, people actually got to like him. Not only did he win in 2018, he was re-elected in 2024 riding on Trump's coattails in a state full of racist white people from every other state - including retirees.
How can Democrats compete with that? They obviously can't. They haven't won a U.S. Senate election or the state's presidential electoral votes in fourteen years and haven't won the governorship in more than twice as long. You almost - almost - want to sympathize with national Democrats for not wanting to give David Jolly or Angie Nixon money to get their messages out. They did that before in previous Florida elections, and to no avail.
Finally, there's the culture. Florida is one of the most dismal places for those seeking intellectual and cultural stimulation. "It's just like California - sun, palm trees, beaches, Stallone - but tackier and more culturally destitute," Spy magazine famously declared of Florida in 1996, and this was back when Democrats were competitive. And I would argue that California is becoming less tacky and culturally destitute these days, as it continues to expand its dynamism. Florida seems to be stuck in that same bland mix of a Southern Scotch-Irish and Northeastern white ethnic ethos we recognized existed on "The Golden Girls." Everything there is just . . . blech. Other states have symbols of cultural, natural, and historical significance with gravitas. Pennsylvania has Independence Hall. Texas has the Alamo. Florida has Walt Disney World. New York has Lincoln Center and Tennessee has the Grand Ole Opry. Florida has EPCOT. Massachusetts has Harvard and California has Stanford; Florida has Nova University. Alaska has Denali. Florida has a speed bump. You get the idea. Florida is so screwed up that, if it weren't for the oranges, we'd give the place back to Spain.
To wit: Florida is a state with cheap, tawdry amusements that the state's residents amuse themselves with to death - especially its retirees. If, as Spy once noted, California has a New Age culture, Florida has an old-age culture. And like the golf cart grannies who live an endless life of pleasure in The Villages, younger people live in godawful places devoted to a world of pure imagination, like the Disney company town of Celebration, a town that combines New Urbanism with the whimsy of Disney's own live-action movies. Suspension of disbelief is the coin of the realm in Florida. Where else but in Florida can you call an elevated beachfront concrete walk a "boardwalk," as in Jacksonville? Where else can you look at slowly receding beaches and pretend that climate change has nothing to do with it because climate change is supposed to be a hoax? Where but in Palm Beach can you find Donald Trump holding court with his outriders and sycophants in a castle as fake as the one in the Magic Kingdom in Orlando that everyone pretends to be real? And elegant?
A state that is built on fantasy and endless summer weather in which you can’t swing a dead possum without hitting an amusement park ride is just sort of state that would elect Byron Donalds and Ashley Moody to statewide office. Democrats should just let Florida go. Tuesday's election results proved that they hardly need it.
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