Top Three Takeaways – September 22nd, 2021

Political parity in Florida. It’s never happened in Florida’s history until now. Florida’s voter registration by party began in 1972. There’s never been a day since in which there weren’t more registered Democrats than Republicans in our state. As of August 31st, that remained the case, but if the trend we’ve seen this year has held – it may no longer be in real-time. In 1972, Democrats held a 40.6% voter registration advantage over Republicans. By 2016 that had dwindled to 2.5%. Last November that advantage was down to 0.9%. Based upon the state’s just updated records reflecting Florida’s registered voters through August 31st, Democrats hold a voter registration advantage of just 0.1%. There’s essentially political parity in Florida for the first time on record and the size of the changes are large. Democrats have lost 73,664 more voters than Republicans year-to-date. And while not all Democrats vote straight tickets, nor do Republicans, historically over 80% do. And the loss by Democrats relative to Republicans this year is larger than the outcomes of the gubernatorial, U.S. Senate and Agricultural Commissioner races from 2018 combined. Times are changing politically in Florida, which they consistently have been. What was a deep blue state fifty years ago and a purple state twenty years ago is now on the verge of becoming a red state – at least by way of voter registration.
What the…? First, if you’re an insomniac, if you’re struggling sleeping, I’m convinced that if you put Joe Biden’s UN speech on a loop, you’ll have the best night of sleep in your entire life. Now, in the event you’re able to remain awake through it, the words themselves were a bit confounding to say the least. Mumble...mumble...climate change...mumble...mumble...pandemic. Somehow with a crisis at our border, with the citizens of dozens of the countries represented in that room, that didn’t come up. But he did say something about how we need to give even more of our hard-earned money away to them. Somehow with a crisis of confidence among NATO countries in his leadership regarding our hap-hazard withdrawal from Afghanistan, that left all related countries in a lurch, and in which Americans are still in one trapped behind enemy lines, he said something to the effect of an inflection point made me do it, or something like that. Again, staying awake was a real challenge. Anyway, so what was the response? “He’s a big disappointment all over Europe.” That’s what the former French ambassador who was just recalled from the United States over President Biden’s broken contract with the French had to say. The rest of the world is saying what the...? And not just when he’s mumbling before the UN.
We need justice for Gabby Petito. The words of Governor DeSantis along with these At the request of @NorthPortPolice, @MyFWC law enforcement has been assisting in the search for Brian Laundrie. I have directed all state agencies under my purview to continue to assist federal & local law enforcement as they continue to search. So, the state’s all in. And justice in the minds of many includes Brian Laundrie’s parents not just him. Yesterday there was the picture from a trail cam which emerged that might have been a match for Brian in Baker, Florida 500 miles from North Point - which investigators later determined wasn’t him. There was the weirdness of watching Brian’s dad return home with milk. But what there’s likely to be is justice. And that includes the Laundrie’s parents. Yesterday I made the case for aiding and abetting under Florida law, and notable criminal defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh agreed with my assessment. If Brian Laundrie is still alive his free days are numbered, but the same may well be true for his parents. As the governor said, we need justice for Gabby Petito.

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