Despite the difficult national environment, things aren’t looking too bad for the GOP in Florida at the moment. Per the Palm Beach Post:
[S]o far, there’s little evidence of heightened Democratic enthusiasm in the run-up to the state’s Aug. 28 primaries.
According to figures released by the Florida Division of Elections this morning, 448,242 people have already cast vote-by-mail ballots for the Aug. 28 elections. Republicans have cast 209,500 of those ballots, or 46.7 percent. Democrats have cast 173,271 ballots, or 38.6 percent.
Election day is still 19 days away, but this year’s vote-by-mail figures so far look a lot like the final mail-in ballot totals for Florida’s last two primary elections. In 2014, Republicans had a 47.8-to-39.2 percent edge in vote-by-mail turnout for the August primaries. In 2016, the GOP had a 49-to-38.2 percent advantage in mail ballots for the August primaries.
Meanwhile, Rick Scott is not only up on Bill Nelson by around three or four points, but he’s winning Hispanics in South Florida and is well-liked by Puerto Ricans in the middle of the state. Could this be why Bill Nelson has started babbling about Russian hacking, only to be swiftly contradicted by the Florida Department of State?