DeSantis Rising in Previously Deep Blue Miami-Dade County

Perhaps it is the difference between getting elected to be someone and running for office to do something. Or it could be that Americans are concerned about the future of their children than another tax cut. Add the Democrats altogether abandoning the middle- and working-class with policies that play in the well-heeled suburbs and elite college campuses, and political coalitions will shift. However, the shift in approval for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in Miami-Dade County is astonishing.

Hillary Clinton carried the county by nearly 30 points in 2016. DeSantis’s Democrat opponent, Andrew Gillum, won it by almost 21% in 2018. Even President Biden won Miami-Dade by a little more than seven points. However, after a year of Democratic leadership at the national level, this Democrat stronghold could become a purple county. According to Breitbart, a new poll shows DeSantis with a +7 approval rating in Miami-Dade. That would represent a 14-point gain over Biden’s win in 2020 and a 28-point swing from the 2018 election.

According to a new poll, Hispanic voters, particularly Cuban Americans, are driving the swing. This is not surprising considering that the Biden administration did nothing to support Cuban protestors in the summer of 2021. The Department of Homeland Security went so far as to tell Cubans fleeing by boat that the U.S. would return them. It is not clear if the sentiment of Venezuelan Americans is shifting following the Biden administration making overtures to dictator Nicolás Maduro to remedy fuel shortages after boycotting Russian oil.

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This trend is one first observed in 2020. President Trump won several majority Hispanic counties that traditionally went to Democrats in Texas. Immigration policy and the economy were cited as primary drivers of the shift. Miami-Dade also started to shift. Because it contains the largest number of registered voters in the state, the media credited the nearly 13% loss in support for Biden compared to Clinton in 2016 with helping President Trump win Florida decisively.

This change is happening despite relentless hostile media for DeSantis. As governor, he has run headlong into the culture wars without apology, and he’s swinging back when the corporate and local media engage in obviously manufactured attacks. DeSantis became the model for fighting COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates during the pandemic. While this earned him the nickname DeathSantis among critics, Florida had a historic level of net immigration in 2020 and 2021 as people fled lockdown states and school closures.

The latest media obsession involving DeSantis is Florida’s parents’ rights in education legislation. DeSantis does not back down whether it is banning critical race theory and providing recourse for parents or restricting the teaching of radical sex education in kindergarten through third grade. The Republican-led legislature works with him to address cultural issues, giving Democrats the opportunity to make fools of themselves. Here they are making fools of themselves over what Democrats and the media call the “don’t say gay” bill to what appears to be a Steppenwolf song:

We’ve got one thing to say to our GOP colleagues — GAY! pic.twitter.com/AiXzW0chUq

— Florida Senate Democrats (@FLSenateDems) March 7, 2022

How far removed is the hysteria from what most Americans think? The Daily Wire commissioned a poll where pollsters provided respondents with the language from the bill. In a +5 Democrat sample, it found:

• Sixty-four percent supported the Florida bill’s ban on classroom instructions on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3 or at any level unless presented in an age or developmentally appropriate manner. Twenty-one percent said they oppose the bill.
• The Florida measure is backed by 69% of Republicans, 62% of Democrats, and 57% of Independents. There were also no notable differences among whites (63%), blacks (66%), and Latinos (62%) or by age.
• 68% of parents support the Florida bill’s classroom instruction regulations, and 79% believe parents should be responsible for driving conversations on sexual orientation and gender identity with children.

Clearly, DeSantis knows what public sentiment on the issue is. He took on Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s foray into state politics and comments in opposition to the bill at the behest of activists head-on. DeSantis hit back directly after saying he would not get bullied by fraudulent media narratives and woke corporations into changing his mind. He publicly questioned if this was really the hill that a company catering to children and families wanted to die on.

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All indications are that DeSantis will walk away with a win in November. Politico reported in November that the Democratic Governors Association might sit out the Florida race. A poll like this from the county with the most registered voters in the state will not encourage them to spend big bucks. DeSantis has turned Florida, including Miami-Dade County, redder by taking on cultural issues and insisting on individual freedom for Floridians. Republican candidates everywhere should take note. Democrats no longer own the culture war, and a bigger coalition of Americans, including parents and minority voters, have started to notice just how far to the left the party has drifted.