WaPo: “Democrats are gaining ground in growing, urbanizing, racially diverse states.
Democratic candidates prevailed in Arizona and Georgia by running up the score in Phoenix and Atlanta. Democratic voters, at least temporarily, have threatened GOP dominance in Texas by adding votes in the state’s growing metropolitan areas. And they wiped out the GOP in Colorado and Virginia by dominating Denver and the suburbs of D.C.
But there’s an important exception to this pattern: Florida.
Florida is home to expanding metros such as Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville. Almost half of Floridians are people of color, and the state’s population is increasing. Yet Florida voted for Donald Trump twice, sent two Republicans to the Senate and elected a string of Republican governors.
Why? Two demographic realities are helping the GOP.
Republicans are gaining ground outside major metros
In Arizona, Georgia, Colorado and Virginia, Democrats cashed in on population growth: They captured millennials, affluent suburbanites and immigrants who flocked to expanding cities, held onto Black voters and overpowered Republicans from small, stagnant metros and no-growth towns.
But, in Florida, these small metros and towns grew faster than cities such as Miami….
Diversity within diversity
Another fact that helps Republicans: Florida’s Latino population is itself uncommonly diverse and multicultural….”