South Florida’s Political trends
Bottom Line: In yesterday’s Q&A I mentioned that South Florida isn’t majority Democrat as far as voter registration goes. That seemed to surprise some, so I thought it was worth a follow up today. Here’s the voter registration in the tri-county area I shared in the Q&A.
- Broward: 50% Democrat
- Miami-Dade: 42% Democrat
- Palm Beach: 42% Democrat
Despite representing the political party of choice for less than half of South Floridians, it still is the political party of choice based on plurality. But that longer-term trend has been changing with time.
Where I think it surprises some, is that it feels like Democrats tend to dominate public offices in South Florida. The state has voter registration information available monthly going back to 1995. Looking back 24 years (yes it’s crazy that 95’ is 24 years ago), here’s what the tri-county voter registration looked like:
- Broward: 54% Democrat
- Miami-Dade: 51% Democrat
- Palm Beach: 47% Democrat
So, over the past two plus decades all South Florida has experienced a decline in Democrat voter registration as a percentage of all voters. The declines look like this:
Decline in Democrat voter registration:
- Broward: 4%
- Miami-Dade: 9%
- Palm Beach: 5%
The trend is in and whereas South Florida’s voters once were most often Democrats; they no longer are and it’s a reminder to not take races for granted. Remember states like Michigan and Pennsylvania hadn’t voted for a Republican for President since 1988 until Trump in 2016. A lot has changed and continues to change. In South Florida, that change has generally been a move away from Democrat majorities resulting in a moderating political picture.