美国国家公共电台 NPR--Don't call Florida a red state yet: Left-leaning groups say their voters stayed home

Don't call Florida a red state yet: Left-leaning groups say their voters stayed home

Transcript¹

Florida Republicans won elections up and down the ballot² by staggering margins³ this year. Some political experts say this election could mark the end of Florida's longtime status as the biggest swing state in the country, but Democrats⁵ and third-party groups say they are not convinced Florida is officially a Republican stronghold.

They say there's a more complicated explanation for what happened in Florida during the midterms.

Dwight Bullard, a former state lawmaker and senior political adviser⁶ for a social justice advocacy group called Florida Rising, said this year's election was always going to be a tough one for Democrats. He said he and other groups who predominantly work with Black and Latino voters in Florida — key voting blocs⁷ for Democrats — were dealing⁸ with unmotivated constituencies and a well-funded and well-organized opposition⁹.

"You know a lot of the political tailwinds had already been established," Bullard said. "If we were going to use the analogy of a track meet, folks had already started running a few meters ahead by the time large scale Democratic organization got off the ground. So, it was really going to be a game of catch up."

And they just didn't catch up, he said.

Anthony Verdugo, founder¹⁰ and executive director of the Christian¹¹ Family Coalition¹² Florida, said conservative mobilization efforts like his have been working hard for years. He said they really caught a lot of momentum¹³, though, in the past year.

"The governor's office and the Republican Party focused on a very aggressive voter registration¹⁴ campaign," he said. "Florida has always — since its founding — been a majority Democrat⁴ registered state. December of last year we crossed the threshold."

Verdugo said his own group registered about 1,300 conservative faith voters in just a three-week period last fall. He also credits Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who he said did an effective job rallying the party's base by running on a lot of cultural issues. As a result, Verdugo said, Republicans had a more consistent and clearer message for their voters than Democrats.

"I think that combined with everything that the Republican Party did right made it lopsided and became all the difference in the world," he explained.

DeSantis won his reelection by almost 20 percentage points. Up and down the ballot, other Republicans did almost just as well.

Joshua Karp, a Democratic strategist, said he's skeptical¹⁵ that this amounts to a huge political victory led by DeSantis though.

"He won about 4.1 million votes four years ago," Karp said. "He won about 4.6 million votes this time. So, he certainly increased by a few hundred thousand people the size of his coalition. In a state like Florida that's a few percentage points. What really happened is Democrats did not show up to the polls."

It's all about the money

Statewide turnout was down by more than half a million votes compared to 2018. Karp blames a lot of this lack of motivation among Democratic voters in Florida on money.

Tessa Petit, executive director of an immigrants rights group called the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said the electoral arm of her group was pleading with national donors¹⁶ to help them get out the vote. But she and other groups fell millions of dollars short in fundraising.

"The investment went down a lot," Petit said. "The donors pulled back because I think they kind of — I don't know maybe they lost faith in the party altogether."

Four years ago, money was flowing into Florida for groups like the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Petit said. That year, DeSantis won the governor's race by a mere¹⁷ .04% of the vote.

Petit said this lack of funding is why Miami Dade County in particular saw a 10 percentage point drop in turnout this year compared to the last midterm election. Because of the diversity in the state, she said, it takes a lot of money to get out the vote in communities of color. Petit said this is why national donors should not pick and choose what years to invest here if they want to see results.

"Florida is not a state that you can date," she said. "You gotta get into a you know — you gotta get into a relationship, a committed relationship with Florida."

Voting rights laws may have had an impact

In examining the results of the election, voting rights groups and Democrats in Florida say there was a toxic¹⁸ environment around voting this year created by Republicans.

Karp said in the past two years DeSantis signed two voting bills that went from making it harder for third party groups to register voters to "making it harder to collect the absentee ballots¹⁹ and drop them off for people who might have trouble accessing a polling location."

Karp said he was most concerned, though, by DeSantis' announcement earlier this year that his new election crimes unit arrested 20 people who voted in 2020. In interviews, those individuals said they thought they were allowed to vote because the state gave them a voter registration card.

Bullard said this created a "chilling effect" among some voters who, at one point, were in trouble with the law.

"What we were hearing on the ground was people who had the right to vote feeling as though, 'If I did it, it might actually get me arrested again,' " he said.

Bullard and other Democratic and left-leaning groups say none of this, though, has deterred²⁰ them from continuing their work in Florida. They say they hope the 2024 election will show Democratic donors that Florida is still a state worth investing in.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

3 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

4 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

7 blocs   

n.集团，联盟( bloc的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The division of Europe into warring blocs produces ever-increasing centrifugal stress. 把欧洲分为作战集团产生了越来越大的离心效果。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The policy of the two blocs was played out. 把世界分为两个集团的政策已经过时了。 来自辞典例句

8 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

9 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

10 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

11 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

12 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

13 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

14 registration   

n.登记，注册，挂号

参考例句：

• Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
• What's your registration number?你挂的是几号？

15 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

16 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

18 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

19 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 deterred   

v.阻止，制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I told him I wasn't interested, but he wasn't deterred. 我已告诉他我不感兴趣，可他却不罢休。
• Jeremy was not deterred by this criticism. 杰里米没有因这一批评而却步。 来自辞典例句