MILWAUKEE, Wis. – While Republicans struggled to win in many states during the midterms in 2022, that wasn’t the case in Florida. The state went solidly red in almost every county.
Gov. Ron DeSantis beat challenger Charlie Crist by almost 20 points, an unheard-of victory in recent decades for Republicans.
Senator Marco Rubio had a similar victory over Val Demings by more than 16 points.
Rubio and fellow Florida Republicans are looking to keep their feet on the gas in 2024.
“I’m not worried about apathy. They’re going to come out and vote for president and vote for senate. The one thing we have to make sure is they don’t walk away after that,” Rubio told News4JAX on Thursday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Rubio urged Florida Republicans also to take local races seriously.
“I would argue to you that your school board member, your county commissioner, your city council does on a day-to-day basis is much more impactful than what happens on the federal level often,” he said.
There are also two key issues that both parties are putting a lot of emphasis on: Amendment 4 on making abortion up to 24 weeks a constitutional right and Amendment 3 on legalizing recreational marijuana.
News4JAX also talked to State CFO Jimmy Patronis, another Republican who thinks the numbers are on their side.
“It’s going to be a tough cycle for the Democrats in the State of Florida,” he said. “If you look at 2020, there were 300,000 more registered Democrats and Republicans in November of 2020. Now we’ve got a million more registered Republicans than Democrats in the state. So a massive shift. Last year, 400,000 new net Floridians to the state of Florida, the ones that are moving here, they’re, they tend to be registering, Republican and this is no longer a swing state.”