So, I thought this was pretty neat (and perhaps unprecedented in northern Florida).
The Democratic Party congressional candidates in FL-01, 02, 03, and 04 are all military veterans!
Steven Specht, CD1: U.S. Air Force, Afghanistan veteran
Walt Darland, CD2: Marine Corps
Ken McGurn, CD3: Army, Vietnam veteran
Dave Bruderly, CD4: Navy, Vietnam era veteran
I’ll grant you, all four of these districts are red. Redistricting did that in CD2, in particular, and current Democratic Party congresswoman Gwen Graham decided not to seek re-election as a result.
Three of the four seats (CD1, CD2, and CD4) are open seats, and the fact that these four candidates are military veterans in a military heavy region will indeed make a difference.
Here’s an example: In the CD1 primary race this past Tuesday, 8 GOP candidates were vying for the slot. 5 were veterans, 3 were not. GOP turnout was very low. The non-veteran GOP candidate who won the primary (Matt Gaetz) did so with only 36% of the vote. The 5 military veteran GOP candidates combined for 32% of the vote. Veterans were not voting for Gaetz. In fact, Gaetz used disabled vets as props during his primary campaign. There are 90,000 active duty military members and veterans in CD1. Think that might make a difference in November?
It’s a weird year. Anything can happen. Here’s the ActBlue or donation pages for Specht, Darland, McGurn, and Bruderly. Share some coin with them if you can. Even a buck or two multiplied by a whole bunch of contributors makes a difference in these kind of races.
Also, don’t miss Frisco’s Dems, where he’ll match your donation to a basket of candidates through Labor Day.