There really is no end to the baffling nonsense that Florida’s agriculture secretary, Nikki Fried, is prepared to say in public. Here’s her latest:
Florida's a blue state.
— Nikki Fried (@NikkiFried) April 4, 2022
This is just tosh. It’s fine if Fried thinks that Florida should be a “blue state,” or if she’s working to make it a “blue state,” or if she believes that, by running for governor, she is likely to alter its future. But Florida, as it actually currently exists, is less of a “blue state” than it has been for a quite a long time. Can the Democrats win here? Yes, they can. First, though, they’ll need to own up to their delusions.
In October of last year, Florida announced that it was home to more registered Republicans than registered Democrats for the first time in its history, and in the six months that have followed that announcement, that gap has grown by another 100,000 people. Florida went for the Republican candidate in the last two presidential elections, has two Republican Senators, has a House delegation of 16-11, has voted for the Republican gubernatorial candidate in every election since 1998, and has chosen a Republican majority in the state legislature every two years since 1994. Six of the state’s seven State Supreme Court nominees have been appointed by Republicans; the state’s constitution bars an income tax and requires any new taxes or fees (or an increase in existing ones) to be passed by two-thirds vote of each chamber the legislature; its largest city by area (Jacksonville) has a Republican mayor, as does its most famous city (Miami); and its most recent claims to fame were bucking the 2018 Democratic wave and going out on a limb against COVID-19 excesses.
“Blue state”? Sure.