A primary election doesn’t always indicate what may happen in November, but the two state parties are spinning the results.
Florida Democrats.
State Democrats are spinning the Florida Senate District 7 GOP primary, in which Florida State House Rep. Tom Leak coasted to a win over Trump-endorsed candidate David Shoar. Some Democrats said that was a sound defeat for the former president. However, analysts point out that Leak was already up by double digits, and Trump’s endorsements came in late in the game.
Democrats are also spinning local county elections, where some Trump-backed candidates lost their county commission races in St. Johns County. Trump supporters told Florida Daily that voting against those candidates wasn’t a repudiation of Trump, but a rejection of local policies put in place by local elected leaders.
Florida Democrats can brag about winning several local school board races in the state against Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed candidates. However, they also lost seats in blue counties like Duval where now the GOP controls that school board.
Florida Republicans.
Going into the primary, Republican leaders had bragging rights about higher GOP voter turnout compared to Democrats. Over 400,000 more Republicans than Democrats turned out on Tuesday’s primary, with a 14% higher ratio than Democrats.
GOP talking points from their press releases read, “Florida GOP turned out 14% more voters, have a 1 million registration lead, and they raised $13 million more this summer. The Florida GOP flipped two counties red in election day voter turnout, Duval and Pinellas, and the Duval GOP won two school board races, flipping the Duval County School Board to conservative. All Florida Republican congressional candidates sailed through their primary races. In early voting, Florida Republicans beat Florida Democrats by 7%.”
While all of this is fact, it’s also spin. Yes, state Republicans had more GOP voter participation for the primary, but that’s because there were more contested state house GOP primaries than Democrat primaries, which means more Republican voters should have shown up in larger numbers compared to Democrats.
What democrats lacked in state legislative races, they made up in local school board races and judicial races.
Democrats did well in north Florida. Circuit Court Judge, Republican Nancy Cleveland lost to Democrat Ashley Cox who donated money to Democrats like Andrew Gillum and Joe Biden. Local county judge raced saw democrats come out on top. Democrats showed up to the polls in Duval County to push Cox over the finish line.
The problem with both parties spinning the primary results is, it was still a low voter turnout for the GOP and the Democrats.
Only 26% of registered Democrats voted this past Tuesday and just 29% of Republicans showed up, as well.
Both parties may want to focus on the state’s registered independents. Though only around 10 percent of independents voted in Tuesday’s primary, they’re still a group that can change the election outcome.
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