TAMPA, Fla. — One thing Democrats and Republicans in Florida can agree on these days, Florida is no longer a key battleground state.
“I don’t see how anyone could consider Florida a swing state anymore,” said Tom Scherberger.
Scherberger is the president of the Tampa Tiger Bay Club.
“The trend over the years has been solidly leaning towards the Republicans,” he said.
Our political analyst Susan MacManus said one of the main factors turning Florida from purple to red is more and more Republicans moving to Florida.
“That kind of ramped up the Republican registrants,” MacManus said. “but there have also been more people switching from Democrat to Republicans than switching from Republican to Democrat.”
The number of registered Republicans jumped from 4.5 million in 2017 to 5.2 million in 2022, while the number of independents went from 3.4 million to 3.9 million. Meanwhile, the number of registered democrats went from 4.8 million in 2017 to more than 4.9 this year, which is a much smaller increase.
According to legal experts, the top three reasons people are switching parties are education, inflation and the way Florida handled the pandemic.
Voters like Michael Sakellarides agree with that.
“Think about how many jobs it saved keeping our state open. People were able to live their lives and make decisions for themselves,” Sakellarides said.
He added, “I think it makes a big difference.”
But don’t count Democrats out just yet. About 2 to 3 million people move to Florida every decade. Democrats are hoping to pick up more registered democrats that way. MacManus said that is possible, but Democrats will still have to change the way they campaign in order to win in Florida.
“Democrats are going to have to go back to the drawing board and really take a deep dive into what part of our base are we losing and why,” MacManus said.
