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Conservatives Win Big in Florida

Written by on Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Sarasota County, as with the rest of the state, is won handily by the Republicans


By Johannes Werner

Original Air Date: November 6, 2024

Host: First, we’ll bring you a summary of the most important results statewide, and a take by one of the few winning Democrats in the state.

Johannes Werner: So, it was an avalanche of Republican wins yesterday in Florida. The turnout beat records, and Republican voters overtook the Democrats in their ground game, in early voting. In U.S. Congressional races it was a Republican sweep. The Democrats even failed with their modest goal of challenging the Republican supermajority in the state legislature. And, on a local level, the Republicans stormed Miami-Dade County, once a Democratic stronghold. Local candidates won throughout Florida’s biggest urban area.

But first and foremost, this election was marked by the return of Trump, a convicted felon, to the White House.

Here’s how Anna Eskamani, the progressive who represents an Orlando district in the Florida legislature put it.

Anna Eskamani

Anna Eskamani: It is incredibly unsettling knowing that we are going to go back into a White House of chaos. And when I think about another Trump administration, of course, my heart, my mind goes directly towards our marginalized communities. I’m thinking about our LGBTQ+ community, especially our trans community members. I’m thinking about our immigrant community members. I’m thinking about women and our ability to access reproductive rights. I’m thinking about public health, and just what’s at risk when it comes to public health, workers rights, corporate accountability, which Lena Khan at the Federal Trade Commission has been doing just an amazing job, and no doubt will be removed and replaced by a corporate hack. Thinking about climate change and the importance for us to become energy independent through  new types of energy production and the importance of that on all fronts. So, it’s a lot to process and I do want to encourage folks to get rest. I know a lot of folks are like, “I’m really tired. I’m really exhausted.” And I totally respect that. Right? I don’t have time to rest. So I need to keep going. But I encourage you to get rest because that’s important. You can’t be an advocate. You can’t do this work. You can’t just doom scroll all day like you have to. When you can rest, you need to rest.

JW: Both citizen-initiated constitutional amendments failed to reach the 60% mark they needed. Amendment 4, which would have granted the right to access abortion care, fell short by three percentage points. Here’s how Eskamani put it.

AE: We secured 57% of the vote; which is incredible, historic, but of course not enough to get to that 60% threshold. For those who are wondering about 60% and why that’s even there, it actually was a constitutional amendment in 2006  backed by large corporations who increased the threshold to 60%. And ironically, that question before the voters to increase the threshold to 60% only got 57% of the vote. And so that’s why Florida has a higher threshold compared to other states. And so 57% for abortion access in other states would secure a victory. But of course, nothing in Florida is easy.

JW: Amendment 3, which would have allowed recreational use of marijuana, fell short at 56%.

The four state-initiated amendments were a mixed bag. The probably most controversial one, Amendment One, sought to make school board races partisan. SEE Alliance, a Sarasota-based, youth-run non-profit engaged in local school politics, took the lead on battling that amendment. Amendment 1 fell far short, at 55%.

Amendment 2, which anchors the right to hunting and fishing in the constitution did pass, with 67% of the vote. So did Amendment 5, which adds annual adjustments to homestead tax exemptions, passed with 66%.

But Amendment 6, which would have stopped taxpayer funding for political campaigns, failed miserably. There was little public discussion about the amendment, but using public funding for underdog campaigns seems to be popular. Only 50% voted in favor of ending this practice.

We will have more on the amendments on Friday’s newscast.

The Orlando area presented a counter story to Miami. Orlando progressives scored big wins. Two Orange County Commission candidates going against developer and tourism industry interests won. Monique Worrell, the state attorney in Orlando who was sacked by Governor Ron DeSantis, won her job back, by a sweeping 57 percent of the vote.

And then, there was Eskamani, who coasted to re-election to the Florida House with 58%. And finally, there’s Maxwell Frost, the progressive and youngest U.S. Congressman. Voters put him firmly back in the seat with 63%.

All right, moving on to local races. In Sarasota, it was an across-the-board sweep of Republican wins, with the usual 60-40 percent margin.

Only one Sarasota County Commission seat was up for grabs (in District One, the race was settled in the Republican primaries, in District 5, no one challenged the incumbent). District 3 was special, because the heavily developer-backed Republican lost in the primaries against Tom Knight. Knight, the former sheriff had run on a slow-down development platform. In the general election yesterday, he clearly beat independent

Shari Thornton, who also positioned herself as a development skeptic. Knight got nearly 70%. He will be joining a heavily developer-friendly board.

 

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