Water mattered Tuesday, but not in the way clean water activist groups wanted

There is no question; right now water is one of the most important issues in Florida.

With red tide on the west coast, blue-green algae in South and Southwest Florida, voters Tuesday made a statement that candidates in Florida must address the ongoing water crises impacting waterways across the state.

All Floridians deserve access to clean water. But groups like Bullsugar, which has been accused of stirring up trouble online instead of focusing on solutions to these crises, may have done Floridians a disservice by politicizing the issue to the point where the focus has been put on blame and not the actual problem itself.

The group’s record at the polls Tuesday was checkered, with some of its most high-profile candidates going down in flames.

For example, Bullsugar went all in for Chris King for Governor. The group’s leaders even appeared with him at a Treasure Coast news conference this summer.

But King, who was the most anti-sugar candidate in the 2018 field, received less than 3 percent of the vote Tuesday. He received 37,400 votes in an election where 1 million votes were cast — getting less than 5 percent of the vote in Bullsugar’s home county of Martin. Their endorsed candidate for Governor didn’t win a single Florida county — in fact, he didn’t finish higher than fifth in any Florida county.

Bullsugar made it a point to state plainly: “We did not favor Andrew Gillum in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. He was the weakest.”

Well, Gillum won in spectacular fashion.

Bullsugar’s endorsed candidate for Attorney General, Ryan Torrens, lost by 47 percent.

Bullsugar supported, but did not endorse, Denise Grimsley; she lost by 8 percent in her race for Agriculture Commissioner. In that race, Republican winner Matt Caldwell actually called out Bullsugar for its questionnaire. He deemed the organization a “hate group.”

Caldwell won Tuesday in convincing fashion.

The closest any of their endorsed statewide candidates (King) came to winning — lost by 33 percent.

No Bullsugar-endorsed candidate won any single county in Florida — they were 0 for 201 (3 candidates — 67 counties — 201 chances).

No Bullsugar-endorsed candidate won the Bullsugar home county of Martin — none even came close.

Bullsugar did NOT endorse Ron DeSantis for Governor. And while DeSantis, to make clean water a campaign issue, publicly attacked the sugar industry, by all accounts, Donald Trump was the No. 1 factor in that race.

As a matter of fact, Bullsugar did not endorse a single Republican candidate for statewide office.

(Note on the below: 2 checkmarks = endorsed by Bullsugar)

Why is this important? Because in elections, issues that matter most to voters matter the most in the end. Water certainly matters, but it might be a loser in a statewide race. Tuesday’s results prove it.

When issues like water are oversold in a statewide race, voters might feel like they are “forced to care.” When candidates take time away from talking about the issues that matter the most to voters, it can backfire.

For some candidates, it may have on Tuesday.