Something weird in Florida: Democrats are winning | Commentary. (Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel, January 21, 2024)

Has the spell been broken? Have our prayers been answered? You tell me.  As our then-Ambassador, Thomas Jefferson, wrote,  in a January 16, 1787 letter from Paris to Edward Carrington, "I am persuaded that the good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army. They may be led astray for a moment but will soon correct themselves. The people are the only censors of their governors, and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution."

Something weird in Florida: Democrats are winning | Commentary

Navy veteran Tom Keen notched the Democrats’ first major surprise victory in a local legislative race in more than a decade, flipping the House District 35 seat from red to blue. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel)

By SCOTT MAXWELL | smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com | Orlando Sentinel

PUBLISHED: January 17, 2024 at 1:34 p.m. | UPDATED: January 17, 2024 at 4:46 p.m.

Something weird is happening in Florida. Democrats are winning. For the first time in years.

When Navy veteran Tom Keen surprised the political establishment Tuesday, flipping a legislative district from red to blue, it was huge.

How huge? Well, the last time voters cast ballots in this district, Republicans won by 11 points. On Tuesday, they lost by 3. That’s a big swing — especially in a race where Republicans massively outspent their opponents.

More significantly, from a big-picture standpoint, this Democratic flip in Central Florida comes on the heels of other big, surprising Democratic swings.

In Jacksonville — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ home turf, where a former head of the Republican Party of Florida had been mayor for years — voters also switched allegiances last year, putting a Democrat in the mayor’s office instead.

And in South Florida, Democrats barely lost a special election last month in a legislative district where Republicans had dominated by 30 points just a year before.

As one who has covered politics in this state for more than a quarter of a century, I can tell you this is not normal. For years, Florida Democrats have racked up one loss after another. Sometimes by wee margins. Often by landslides. But almost always consistent losses.

Yet now — after a few years of a GOP supermajority in Tallahassee fuming about Disney, drag queens and rainbow flags while insurance rates skyrocketed and SAT scores dropped — voters seem ready for a course correction.

Democrat Keen wins state House 35 special election over GOP’s Booth

Democrat Tom Keen flipped what had been a Republican seat in Central Florida in a special election held Tuesday for state House District 35.