‘A wholesale repudiation': The red tsunami that swept Florida

TALLAHASSEE — Florida voters left no doubt on Election Day that Republicans are in control of the political levers across the Sunshine State, with GOP leaders winning on issues and maintaining strongholds in the Legislature.

Amid Tuesday’s ruby-red afterglow, Republican officials quickly started planning ahead.

Former President Donald Trump’s return to the White House prompted speculation that folks in his home state of Florida could be prime picks for his new administration.

Gov. Ron DeSantis pumped up Florida Department of Health Secretary Joseph Ladapo, who also serves as state surgeon general, for a slot as head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Retweet if you’d like to see this man — Dr. Joseph Ladapo — serve as the Secretary of HHS in the new Trump administration,” DeSantis Wednesday posted on X.

Incoming House and Senate leaders also began advancing their plans as they gear up for the 2025 legislative session that begins March 4.

House Speaker-Designate Daniel Perez, R-Miami, sent out word that it may be tougher for lawmakers to bring home the bacon for local projects, saying in a Thursday memo to the chamber that lawmakers have “spent taxpayer funds excessively and indiscriminately in the last few years.”

Perez also announced what he called a “leaner” committee structure for the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions.

Incoming Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, this week tapped his leadership team, which includes outgoing Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, serving as chairwoman of the Rules Committee.

RED, RED, RED

In the presidential race in Florida, Trump topped Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 13 percentage points — about a 10 point swing from his Sunshine State victory over President Joe Biden four years ago — and Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott defeated Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell by nearly the same margin.

Scott, who was elected twice as governor before getting elected to the Senate in 2018, quickly turned his focus to a run for U.S. Senate leadership next week.

“We needed a Republican Party to start solving the problems of this country, and we have a significant number of problems,” Scott said at his victory party at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa in Bonita Springs. “Florida is a center of the Republican Party of this country. Washington can learn a hell of a lot from what we've done right here in this great state.”

Florida Democrats, meanwhile, were unable to cut into the GOP’s stronghold in the state’s congressional delegation. Of the 26 Florida members of the U.S. House up for re-election on Tuesday, all 26 won, with Republicans maintaining a 20-8 advantage over Democrats.

On the state legislative side, Democrats failed to flip a North Florida Senate district. Voters also dashed Dems' hopes of chipping away at Republicans’ supermajority in the state House, with the GOP gaining one seat Tuesday night.

State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, called the GOP’s wins up and down the ballot “a wholesale repudiation of Democrat policies and Democrat policy proposals.”

“The second thing is that the voters have a mandate that they want a wrecking ball taken to the swamp that is Washington, D.C., and Donald Trump is their preferred choice of that wrecking ball, because they know he's going to go up, go up there and smash the status quo,” Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, said Wednesday.

DESANTIS SCORES

DeSantis spent the final two weeks of the election barnstorming the state in opposition to ballot proposals that would have allowed recreational use of marijuana and enshrined abortion rights in the state Constitution.

While the majority of voters backed both issues, neither reached the 60 percent approval required to pass.

The abortion measure, which appeared on the ballot as Amendment 4, received support from 57 percent of voters.

The failure of the amendment ensures that a law largely preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy will remain in effect.

“The demise of pro-abortion Amendment 4 is a momentous victory for life in Florida and for our entire country,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a prepared statement. “Thanks to Gov. Ron DeSantis, when we wake up tomorrow, babies with beating hearts will still be protected in the free state of Florida.”

State Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, called the proposal’s failure to pass “devastating.”

“This was our opportunity to safeguard the right to choose, and now, Floridians will continue to face uncertainty and restrictions on their reproductive rights. The consequences will be most harmful to marginalized communities who already struggle to access care,” she said in a statement.

A $150 million-plus effort to allow recreational use of marijuana in Florida also fizzled out on Tuesday. 

Trulieve, the state’s largest medical-marijuana operator, pumped nearly $144.6 million into the proposed constitutional amendment. The Quincy-based company’s contributions made up more than 94 percent of the overall total of $152.27 million in cash raised by the Smart & Safe Florida political committee that sponsored the measure, which appeared as Amendment 3 on the ballot. About 56 percent of Floridians supported the proposal.

Florida voters Tuesday also approved two of four ballot measures proposed by the Legislature, putting hunting and fishing rights in the state Constitution and making a property-tax change.

But proposals backed by Republican lawmakers to hold partisan school-board elections and end public financing of political campaigns fell short of the 60 percent threshold.