Be a superhero: Vote, if you haven’t already, and tell your friends to be heroes too

News and commentary from Florida, a state in desperate need of change

By J.C. Bruce

Tropic Press

Today’s election is a sanity test of sorts.

By this evening—or early morning tomorrow—we should know whether our country has decided to change course or continue the madness.

We all know the saying:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Republicans own every branch of the federal government right now. They also control the state of Florida, where most of you reading this live. Are we happy with the way things are going?

If not, and at the risk of overstating the obvious, we need to do something different.

You may not be thrilled, for instance, with David Jolly as the Democrats’ candidate for governor if you lean progressive. He’s a moderate.

You may not be entirely comfortable with Angie Nixon in the U.S. Senate race. She may be left of your center.

But would you rather have Byron Donalds in the governor’s mansion? Or Ashley Moody in Washington?

Donalds, who is clearly in the pockets of the AI data center crowd and seems satisfied to turn a blind eye to the Hope Florida scandal? Or Moody, who could have stopped Hope Florida in its tracks, but didn’t, preferring to curry Gov. Ron DeSantis’ favor, which got her named as a placeholder in the seat she’s running for now?

There has never been such a thing as a perfect candidate, but at the end of the day, elections are binary choices. You are either saying yes or no to change.

I’m pretty confident we all know change is necessary.

Nationally, control of Congress is at stake. Here in Florida, because volunteers have worked to recruit Democratic candidates for the State Legislature, we have a chance to break up the Republican supermajority in both the House and Senate.

Will Republicans succeed in the way they gerrymandered the state’s congressional districts, the goal of which was to cut in half the number of Florida Democrats in Congress? Or will it backfire? Your vote will help answer that question.

The Jolly/Donalds race is a statistical tie going into Election Day. Voter turnout will be the key, as it will in the other statewide races, which, in addition to the tight Senate race, include contests for state attorney general, agriculture commissioner, and chief financial officer.

Democrats are fielding credible—and widely endorsed—candidates in all those races.

About 40 percent of registered Florida voters have already voted by mail or through early voting at local polling places. So far, 38 percent of Republicans, nearly 50 percent of Democrats, and 31 percent of No Party Affiliation (NPA) voters have cast their ballots.

That represents 2.2 million Republican votes versus 2.1 million Democrat votes, with another 1.2 million ballots cast by independents. Those NPAs could make the difference in whether we see change in this state.

Here are some visuals of all that from Fresh Take Florida:

I know many of you, like me, have already voted. If not, remember voting is your superpower.

One of these:

Equals one of these:

Be a superhero. And tell your friends to be superheroes too.

There are also constitutional amendments

For a look at the three constitutional amendments on the ballot today, here is some recommended reading:

Public safety leaders urge Floridians to vote no on Amendment 3

Drastic Reduction in Property Taxes Would Put Local Services at Risk

Florida’s Constitutional Amendments

Herald Ed Board urges Florida voters to reject 3 ballot amendments

Also for your reading enjoyment…

Florida pollster Mark Schulman writes that “if Democrats capture Congress, they will win something more valuable than committee gavels and subpoena power. They will win two years to define what the 2028 presidential election is about…

“The real prize if they win the midterms is the opportunity to demonstrate that they can govern. Their larger mission should be to turn the final two years of the Trump presidency into the first two years of the Democratic case for 2028.”

Check out his analysis here:

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