FLORIDA – Florida was once considered a pivotal battleground state, but since 2012, the Republican Party has consistently won the state.
And this year the party also turned more counties red, which were consistently blue in past elections.
In the 2020 General Election- the democratic candidate led the republican candidate in 12 counties.
Those were Gadsden, Leon, Duval, Seminole, Orange, Osceola, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Alachua counties.
Fast forward 4 years and the democratic candidate only won in half of those counties.
Those are Gadsden, Leon, Alachua, Orange, Palm Beach and Broward Counties.
“Yesterday was a rollercoaster ride.,” Shamari J. Lewis, president of Coalition of Black Republican Americans, said. “There were highs and lows.”
Lewis said the win former president Donald Trump had in Florida was deserved and shows his party is putting in the work to gain voters in counties that were once blue.
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And he attributes this to different messaging.
“And I’m very proud to say with the Coalition of Black Republican Americans we were able to help the RNC help the party the candidates understand this was a prime opportunity to converse and go after directly Black Fathers, First of all black men, black fathers and black entrepreneurs,” Lewis said. “It was hey we see you are a man we understand you were a man and that you want to provide for your family.”
News4JAX also reached out to Steve Adams with Duval GOP to ask him why he thought Republicans gained the lead in counties that typically were led by Democrats.
He believed it had to deal with the changing political landscape, more ground operations, and a different mood for voters.
While speaking with Daniel Henry from the Duval Dems he agreed with the Duval GOP----on the changing landscape in the state for the reason, democrats lost certain counties.
But said to gain them back they have to “Focusing on policies in messaging that truly brings both democrats and pa’s and republicans together in our message for our candidates in the future.”
And he added this means in the next election they’ll be trying even harder to gain that trust with voters.