TAMPA, Fla. — Election night ended with a big upset for state and local Democrats. Many said they were shocked, but some, like ABC Action News’ political analyst Susan McManus said she saw this coming months ago.
“Everything comes down to one thing,” she said. “Getting the voters who support you to actually go vote. We call it GOTV, get out the vote.”
The issue is Florida Democrats did not go out to vote for Democrats. You can tell that by just looking at the numbers. There are 342,601 registered democrats in Hillsborough County, compared to 290,071 registered republicans, and 292,219 non-partisan voters. A lot of those non-partisans, and some democrats, voted red Tuesday.
It started with the Top of the ticket, according to McManus. It was like a game of dominoes, as Democratic senator and gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist fell, so did the rest of the ticket, and it impacted the local candidates.
Democrat incumbent Janet Cruz lost her Florida senate seat to newcomer, Republican Jay Collins.
““I can tell you I love nothing more than serving in the senate and representing you and fighting for public schools,” Cruz said during her concessions speech. “but this was a different campaign season. And this is a different environment.”
The losses continued down to county commission. Democrats Mariella Smith and former county chair Kimberly Overman lost to their republican challengers, Donna Cameron- Cepeda and Joshua Wostal.
That reshaped the county commission giving Republicans a 4 to 3 majority.
Tampa’s Young Republicans said the outcome is a clear sign that voters wanted a change.
McManus said the Republicans simply out-campaigned the Democrats across the state. She said the big selling points for the GOP: inflation, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign, his likability factor across the state, and the way he handled Hurricane Ian gave him a big boost.
““What that did was allow people to see his crisis management skills,” she said. “When you have a crisis —first and foremost— you expect your governor to be out in front and trying to resolve it, which he did. He got good marks from well over half of Florida.”
Going forward, McManus said, in order for Democrats to win in Florida, they have to change the way they campaign and do better relating to Florida voters.
