THE GREAT AMERICAN POLITICAL ROADTRIP: FLORIDA AND GEORGIA

Check out the first three editions of THE GREAT AMERICAN POLITICAL ROADTRIP: Alabama and Alaska here; Arizona and Arkansas here, California and Colorado here and Connecticut and Delaware here.

FLORIDA

The 2020 Presidential Election in Florida

Is there any state that is more associated with political chaos than Florida? For nearly a quarter century just the mention of the state’s name has invoked anxiety, headaches, and nausea among political pundits and consultants in both parties.

The Sunshine State, the country’s third most populated, is messy with a capital “M” when it comes to politics. For decades, it was the premier swing state, a voter-rich haven of arch-conservatives and aging liberal hippies that always seemed to be decided by stress-inducing razor-thin margins. No election was that dynamic truer than 2000 when by just 537 votes, Florida handed the presidency to George W. Bush and changed the course of history. 

Florida is a unique state politically. it doesn’t have the same urban-suburban-exurban-rural dynamics as nearly every other state. Its major cities are the core of the state’s metropolitan areas, but often the sprawling suburbs are larger than the cities themselves. Miami, the state’s second-largest city, is home to only about 15 percent of the total population of the metropolitan region, which includes the South Florida coastline up through West Palm Beach. Tampa and Orlando similarly make up about 12 to 15 percent of the total population of their metropolitan areas. In northern metropolises, like New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, the cities themselves make up anywhere from 25 to 45 percent of the region’s population. That means Florida is unique in having the type of sprawling suburbs and exurbs that historically favor Republicans.