Anne Geggis
Every victory counts, and the Republican Party of Florida has another notch on its belt: Hamilton County, population 14,397, has flipped from blue to red.
The Hamilton County Supervisor of Elections Office shows the 3,302 Republicans in the county — which lies along the Georgia border between Madison and Baker counties — now outnumber Democrats by four people.
“Congratulations to the Hamilton County Republican Party for flipping from Democrat to Republican,” said Evan Power, Leon County Republican Party Chairman and Florida Republican Chair of Chairs.
This is the fifth county and the third North Florida County where his party has been able to gain a numerical advantage, he said.
“We would not be here without the great leadership of (Gov. Ron DeSantis) and his commitment of resources into voter registration,” Power said, naming Hendry, Franklin, Jackson and Pinellas counties as the new links in the Republicans’ state dominance.
But Rhett Bullard, the state committeeman for the Hamilton County Democratic Executive Committee, said he’s not worried that this is some bellwether.
Vote totals there showed 65% of Hamilton voters cast their ballot for President Donald Trump and 34% went for President Joe Biden. It’s been happening that way for a few cycles, Bullard said.
“They’re just shaving off some Democrats who were voting Republican anyway,” Bullard said. “If anything, it saves us money — we won’t have to communicate with people who weren’t voting for us in the first place.”
“Thank them for us,” Bullard added.
Much has been made of the new numerical advantage Republicans gained in 2021. The latest data shows Republicans’ total voter registration numbers grew by 2% since then, while Democrats lost 2.3% of its official membership, state numbers show. “Democrats bungling has ‘swing state’ status in jeopardy,” read one Orlando Sentinel commentary last year. One Democratic Party finance guy this summer told POLITICO the return on investment in Florida is not a good one.
But Bullard dismisses such talk. Florida is still very much in play, he insists.
“There’s a large group of people out there who are neither identifying as Democrat or Republican,” Bullard said. “The polling wouldn’t be so close when you have Republicans outspending Democrats 10 to one yet only winning by 1 or 2 points.”
Those with no party affiliation increased in number by 2.9%, state numbers show, although the majority of voters still identify as Republican or Democrat.
8 comments
Joe Corsin
October 7, 2022 at 1:13 pm
When all these Trump blue hairs are dead..it’s gonna be a blue state forever.
MG
October 7, 2022 at 1:56 pm
I am in a red, retirement, county, and most of the “blue hairs” I know are Democrats.
Joe Corsin
October 7, 2022 at 2:22 pm
Like The Villages???
Impeach Biden
October 10, 2022 at 6:33 pm
Get ready Corsin it is coming. Nov 8 is going to be a great night. I’m having a party at my house and you and your aliases are invited
Jan
October 12, 2022 at 3:23 pm
Your crazy
Hope
October 7, 2022 at 2:33 pm
Until the Democrats quit hating and mismanaging there will be a continued downward spiral… which they are at the point now where it will take them at least 20 years to recover, if at all. They made many critical miscalculations that will cost them dearly.
Elliott Offen
October 7, 2022 at 3:11 pm
Certainly you must be trolling. Republicans haven’t won the popular vote in a presidential election in quite some time. You are pulling things out of your ass. Lying Republican charlatan.
Riverman
October 7, 2022 at 8:57 pm
You obviously have not read the rational behind our founding fathers construction of our CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC which is specifically designed to prevent the dogmatic control of our nation by the huge European like cities that are actually the very least successful citizens of the population. Yes there are wildly disfunctional people in our huge disfunctional cities who are allowed to vote but thankfully our founding fathers foresaw that possibility and gave the states overwhelming power to preserve our constitutional republic.
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