If you follow me on Twitter, you’re familiar with the Electoral College maps that I do every few days based on Trump’s current approval ratings in all 50 states. There have been a lot that have been shared very far and wide, including by Rachel Maddow & Joy Reid, but let’s take the most recent one…
When I did these maps in mid and late 2019, Florida’s shading was nearly always pink (Trump up 1-4) or light blue (Trump down 1-4). These days, Florida is always “likely” blue (Trump down 5-8).
It’s a real head scratcher. Why could that be?
Could it be a historic economic recession that’s been extended because of Trump and his lackeys like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ fixation on the stock market as opposed to the pain of working people? Could it be the fact that Florida is now the COVID capital of the world? Could it be that they are obviously not taking any of this seriously?
Meanwhile, ** some ** Democrats are trying to do something about it — from inside and outside of Florida. Every state legislative district: covered. Every candidate: spoken to and assisted, but not by the Florida Party. In fact, many of the candidates who’ve bravely stepped up to run in “long shot” races haven’t even heard from the Party at all!
Why in the hell is that?
We are literally forfeiting votes in a state that:
- Rick Scott only won by 64,145 votes (1% of the vote) in 2014
- Trump only ‘won’ by 112,911 votes (1.2% of the vote) in 2016
- Ron DeSantis only won by 32,463 (0.4% of the vote) in 2018
- Rick Scott only won by 10,033 (0.13% of the vote) in 2018
Yes, some of these candidates are in races that are unlikely to be winners in their own right. However, if each of those 36 candidates in races that the Florida Party was comfortable forfeiting — through their organizing — bring out an additional 902 voters each, that would make up the vote margin that would have prevented colossal idiot, Ron DeSantis, from being Governor and could be the difference between Trump ‘serving’ another four years.
So, I ask again: We are trying to win, right?
If so, let’s get some support to candidates like Kathy Lewis, Karen Butler, Bob Lynch, Anselm Weber and his partner Rachel Brown — who was shamelessly asked to drop out of the race so that a “better” Republican could win it.
There is no cavalry coming to save the day. We are the cavalry.
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
— President (then-candidate) Barack Obama on February 5, 2008