News/Commentary

MSNBC pundit says GOP’s dominance in Florida is due to gerrymandering. Let that sink in a minute.

November 9, 2022 | | Print Article

MSNBC is facing intense mockery for trying to blame the Democrats’ epic losses in Florida on gerrymandering.

Never mind that Republicans performed well throughout all of Florida, including in traditionally blue counties like Miami-Dade, meaning it wouldn’t have mattered had the voting maps been drawn up differently.

Never mind also that gerrymandering only plays a role in House races. It’s impossible to gerrymander either a senate race or a governor’s race.

“The GOP’s dominance in Florida is all about gerrymandering,” MSNBC tweeted around 8:30 pm late Tuesday evening.

Look:

The tweet provoked massive, massive, massive mockery.

Some of it came from Twitter:

The rest of the mockery came from Fox News.

“I have now for you the political comment of the evening, maybe of all time. Somebody saying over on MSNBC that the GOP’s dominance in Florida is all about gerrymandering,” network contributor Brit Hume said to a panel late Tuesday.

Both Hume and his fellow panel members then erupted into deep laughter.

Listen:

As noted earlier, Republicans — particularly incumbent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — performed well in all of Florida.

“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis swiftly trounced Democrat Charlie Crist on Tuesday night, a win that will shape Florida politics likely for years and sets the Republican governor up for a probable 2024 presidential run,” according to Politico.

“DeSantis defeated Crist by a nearly 20 percent margin — 59 to 40 — a stunning margin that was the widest margin in a Florida gubernatorial race since Jeb Bush won by nearly 13 points in 2002. DeSantis also won the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County, another first for Republicans since Bush did it that same year,” Politico reported.

DeSantis taking Miami-Dade County was a big upset, as the county has traditionally voted blue.

“Miami-Dade County in South Florida had a change of heart Tuesday and went red as voters supported Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is projected to be the first GOP governor to win the county in two decades. … In 2002, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush became the last to-date Republican gubernatorial candidate to win the heavily populated and diverse Miami-Dade County in South Florida,” according to Fox News.

See more mockery of MSNBC below (*Language warning):

Conservatives believe Republicans performed well in Florida not because of gerrymandering or “voter suppression” — another complaint from the left — but because DeSantis has performed so well as governor.

Well enough, in fact, that he’s converted plenty of Hispanic Democrats into Hispanic Republicans.

And indeed, in the days preceding the election, the left had been fretting over this exact issue of the governor being popular among Hispanics.

“Florida Democrats are fretting over Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ popularity among Latinos, saying they are boosting his chances of becoming the first Republican governor in 20 years to win traditionally blue Miami-Dade County and therefore propelling his chances of a successful presidential run in 2024,” NBC News reported on Oct. 21st.

“If Ron DeSantis wins the Latino vote in Florida, which has been a GOP project now for the past decade, Ron DeSantis is going to go directly to his donors and say, ‘I can win the presidential nomination and I can beat the Democratic nominee in 2024 because I can win the Latino vote,'” Devon Murphy Anderson, the co-founder of the voter registration organization Mi Vecino, said to the outlet.

To be fair to Democrats crying foul about alleged gerrymandering, DeSantis’ performance in Miami-Dade County is particular is stunning.

“Hillary Clinton won Miami-Dade County by almost 30 points in 2016, but Biden won the county by only 7 points,” NBC News noted.

The thing is that although Republicans originally kept losing in the county, they never gave up trying to win over its voters.

“Republicans looked at that and instead of throwing their hands up, walking away from the county, and saying this is always going to be a blue base, they doubled down in their investment there,” Anderson said.

She added that Democrats meanwhile did the exact opposite after 2020: “Democrats threw their hands up and said, ‘Latino voters are lost, it’s over — it’s a wrap for us there.'”

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles