Conservatives who move from Democratic-run places to Republican-led states are often called blue state refugees. These conservatives have helped reshape the electorate in Florida.
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Conservatives who move from Democratic-run places to Republican-led states are often called blue state refugees. Parts of Florida are full of them. As NPR’s Maham Javaid reports, these conservatives have helped reshape the electorate in Florida, altering who votes there and who they vote for.
MAHAM JAVAID, BYLINE: People have moved to Florida, or want to, for lower taxes, fewer COVID regulations and conservative values, including abortion restrictions and gun rights.
CHERYL REGAN: This is like the Freedom Palace of Florida.
JAVAID: That’s Cheryl Regan, talking about the city of Naples. She moved from Cleveland, Ohio, to Florida for its looser COVID regulations.
REGAN: So during lockdowns, I came and stayed here for eight weeks because I wanted to escape the communism up North.
JAVAID: Kris Barry was also in Naples. She’s a lifelong Republican who lives in Massachusetts, but is exploring a move because of Florida’s tax policies.
KRIS BARRY: And my husband is 100% disabled veteran, so living in the state of Florida means that we don’t have to pay any property tax.
JAVAID: Democrats in Florida have tried to push back against the state’s red turn, but residents who lean left aren’t happy with the state’s conservative policies. Here’s Janeen Vanko, a Democrat who lives in Alva and works in Fort Myers.
JANEEN VANKO: All I can say is, hey, pretty girls. This is Trump country, and it’s bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
JAVAID: It’s not just voters. Many Republican candidates have also moved here from blue states. For Catalina Lauf, who came from Illinois, COVID was a tipping point.
CATALINA LAUF: You know, a lot of us came down here after that because we saw how tyrannical some people could be. I mean, you got to a point where kids couldn’t even play outside. And where you come to a place like Florida, where that – it was pretty open out here.
JAVAID: Ultimately, Lauf didn’t win her House primary this week. A longtime Floridian did. Some prominent Florida politicians are blue state refugees, like President Trump or Congressman Byron Donalds. Donalds is originally from Brooklyn and just won the Republican nomination for the upcoming governor’s race. While campaigning, he talked about people preferring Florida to New York.
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BYRON DONALDS: And so you now have seen business leaders – longtime business leaders in finance have said, I can’t take it anymore. I have to go to a place that just makes sense. And they’re choosing Florida.
JAVAID: For two decades, Florida was the country’s biggest swing state, but that’s no longer the case. Aubrey Jewett, who teaches political science at the University of Central Florida, says the main reason for that is the population growth after the pandemic.
AUBREY JEWETT: By about a 2 to 1 margin, the people that were coming here were registering Republican, and many of them were leaving blue states.
JAVAID: Republicans, who trailed in voter registrations till 2021, now lead by more than a million voters. Jewett says the stakes don’t stop at the state line. The GOP advantage in Florida could help determine who controls the U.S. House next year.
Maham Javaid, NPR News, Fort Myers, Florida.
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