NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, November 8th, 2022

Republicans dominate statewide, congressional races in Florida

As expect­ed, giv­en Gov­er­nor Ron De San­tis’ forc­ing through a ger­ry­man­der­ing of the state’s con­gres­sion­al dis­tricts that favors Repub­li­cans, refus­ing to cut some slack for vot­ers in Demo­c­ra­t­ic-major­i­ty areas but hap­pi­ly doing so for Repub­li­can-major­i­ty areas adverse­ly affect­ed by hur­ri­cane Ian, and using his Flori­da Office of Elec­tion Crimes and Secu­ri­ty to intim­i­date and arrest black Florid­i­ans in par­tic­u­lar, it’s no sur­prise that Repub­li­cans are win­ning in Flori­da’s statewide and con­gres­sion­al races this evening.

With 88% of the votes count­ed, Gov­er­nor De San­tis is eas­i­ly defeat­ing for­mer Demo­c­ra­t­ic mem­ber of Con­gress Char­lie Crist, 59.3% to 40.1%. Sen­a­tor Mar­co Rubio is also defeat­ing for­mer Demo­c­ra­t­ic mem­ber of Con­gress Val Dem­ings, 57.1% to 41.3%.

With 99% of the votes count­ed in Char­lie Crist’s Con­gres­sion­al seat in the 13th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, Repub­li­can Anna Luna is defeat­ing Demo­c­rat Eric Lynn, 53.4% to 44.8%. The seat had been made con­sid­er­ably red­der thanks to De San­tis’ gerrymander.

In the 1st Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, poten­tial pedophile and incum­bent mem­ber of Con­gress Matt Gaetz eas­i­ly defeat­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent Rebekah Jones, 67.3% to 37.2%.

In the 2nd Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, incum­bent mem­ber of Con­gress Neal Dunn eas­i­ly defeat­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent Al Law­son, who stayed and fought after his pre-ger­ry­man­der­ing major­i­ty black 5th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict was erased, 60.1% to 39.9%.

In the 3rd Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, incum­bent mem­ber of Con­gress Kat Cam­mack eas­i­ly defeat­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent Danielle Hawk, 62.7% to 36.2%.

In the 4th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, incum­bent mem­ber of Con­gress Arron Bean  eas­i­ly defeat­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent La Shon­da Hol­loway, 60.7% to 39.3%.

In the 6th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, incum­bent mem­ber of Con­gress Michael Walsh eas­i­ly defeat­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent Joseph Han­noush, 75.3% to 24.7%.

In the 7th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, the seat was tech­ni­cal­ly open but the incum­bent Demo­c­rat, Stephanie Mur­phy, retired in expec­ta­tion of the seat being made red through ger­ry­man­der­ing, and it was. Repub­li­can can­di­date Corey Mil­lls defeat­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent Karen Green, 58.5% to 41.5%.

The Democ­rats were actu­al­ly thought to have a chance against Repub­li­can incum­bent Maria Elvi­ra Salazar in the 27th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, but she defeat­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic state Sen­a­tor Annette Tad­deo 57.4% to 42.6%.

…and on and on it went.

Democ­rats did well in a sliv­er of the Tam­pa Bay-St. Peter­surg area, most of the greater Orlan­do area, and in the greater Mia­mi area — they won races in the 9th, 10th, 14th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th Con­gres­sion­al Districts.

But at the end of the car­nage, the Repub­li­cans held twen­ty Con­gres­sion­al seats in Flori­da, the Democ­rats eight.

One can expect a full-on mutiny of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic faith­ful against Flori­da Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty chair Man­ny Diaz — the for­mer Mia­mi may­or who was sup­posed to help turn around the par­ty’s for­tunes after a dis­as­trous 2020 elec­tion — once the smoke clears.

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