The blue wave that swept elsewhere around the United States on Tuesday night did not reach Sarasota’s beaches.
Democrats took control of the U.S. House of Representatives and flipped U.S. Senate seats in historic red states like South Carolina and Texas. Democrats also outperformed the polls in key statewide races, coming within 3 percentage points in Florida’s U.S. Senate and gubernatorial elections. And despite the state’s redistricting efforts meant to favor the GOP, Democrats claimed three of the four newly drawn Congressional seats.
But along the Suncoast, Republicans maintained their grip — clinching victories in county commission races across Sarasota and Manatee counties and helping deliver congressional seats to Sydney Gruters and incumbent Greg Steube.
Up and down the ticket, Republicans dramatically outspent their Democratic opponents.
Their wins come despite an unusual election cycle where several prominent local Republicans campaigned for Democrats, breaking party lines on issues ranging from real estate development to local home rule control.
“It’s been such a privilege to be Sarasota’s voice in Tallahassee for the last six years,” said Republican Rep. Fiona McFarland, who was re-elected to Florida’s 73rd house district by about 7 percentage points.
In the weeks leading up to the election, a series of high-profile Republicans urged voters in their party to vote for Democrats on the ticket. Among them were two sitting Manatee County commissioners whose terms were marked by blowback from Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration when they tried to implement modest regulations on development.
Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse, the co-chair of Republicans for Jolly, which sought to rally conservative support for Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly, also campaigned for Democratic congressional candidate Kelly Kirschner.
Kruse was joined in his across-the-aisle support by fellow conservative commissioner Bob McCann, who endorsed Kirschner along with Democrats Reggie Bellamy and Charles Smith for seats on the Manatee County Commission.
Former commissioner Jason Bearden, who will be replaced by Republican Tara Poulton, threw his support behind Democratic Party hopefuls in that commission race, too — saying he believed Floridians were “tired of political insiders having access that ordinary citizens don’t have.”
Even the leader of the local MAGA Patriots group came out in support of Sarasota County Commission candidate Julie London, a Democrat.
Their support did not close the gap.
Two Democrats running for the Manatee Commission lost decisively. So did London. Jolly’s bid was closer than many expected, coming within 1 percentage point of a win, and Kirschner lost by a margin of 4 points.
Jolly earned 50.1 to Republican Byron Donald’s 48.7.
Kirschner earned 47 to Gruter’s 51.
Within Manatee and Sarasota counties, those races were more solidly Republican, with Donalds and Gruters holding commanding leads among local voters.
Meanwhile, in the closely-watched nonpartisan school board race to fill rightwing firebrand Bridget Ziegler’s seat, Heidi Brandt, the Republican-endorsed candidate, won in her race against Jimmy Glover. And the TPUSA-affiliated candidate in Manatee County’s district 5 race, Cam Bedinghaus, prevailed narrowly over his moderate Republican opponent there.
With 56% of the vote, Republican Jim DeNiro won his race against London, who focused her campaign on voter concerns about overdevelopment – earning her the support of some prominent conservatives.
One commissioner race in Manatee County — for District 2 —was too close to call on Tuesday night, with Republican incumbent Amanda Ballard ahead by fewer than 200 votes and some mail-in ballots yet to be counted.
“I spent $15,000,” said Democrat Charles Smith, who said he was waiting on final results from the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections office. Ballard raised more than $100,000, according to county campaign finance records.
“I feel good about my run,” Smith said.
Voter turnout in Sarasota County exceeded 67% — the highest for a midterm election in the county since at least 1998, according to archived Florida elections data.
Across Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties, Democrats turned out at higher rates than Republicans, though the advantage wasn’t enough to overcome the GOP’s dominance in the local races. The gap was widest in Sarasota County, where nearly 76% of registered Democrats voted, compared to about 68% of registered Republicans.
In an interview on election night, Kruse, who campaigned for Kirschner and Jolly, said the Republican Party should not sit comfortably — despite strong local majorities for most of their candidates.
“These should not have been competitive,” he said, referring to the gubernatorial and U.S. senate races – both which fell within 3 percentage points, a remarkable shift since 2022, when DeSantis beat Democratic challenger Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points.
“That was a huge push of crossover Republican voters that are sick and tired of the status quo.”
Christian Casale and Emily Andersen contributed reporting to this story.
Alice Herman is a watchdog/investigative reporter for Suncoast Searchlight and previously covered democracy and electoral politics in Wisconsin for the Guardian US. Email Alice at alice@suncoastsearchlight.org. This article first appeared on Suncoast Searchlight and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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Charles
— it is curious that Florida failed to reflect the concerns evidenced throughout the country. Would like to see that well scrutinized. Hear rumors that the Joe Gruters machine sank more than five million into getting his wife elected.
Refusal by Gruters to debate or participate in traditional candidate forums suggests that the dirty and unethical marketing Gruters used was the tactic relied upon to persuade naive voters, Would like to see those stories pursued.
Since becoming the incumbent, Steube always has avoided debates and relied upon demographics to keep office — but seeing this tactic from a candidate running a first campaign is a clear indicator of reliance by Gruters upon the renown local puppet-placing machine. The massive use of dark money promoting Gruters is a poster-child example of the need for reform in campaign financing.
The next election for their federal congressional seats is only two years away and it is likely that Gruters and Steube will be held accountable for their close association with the subjects of investigations that occur during the congress seated in January. Stay tuned and although they seem especially slow in Florida — watch the wheels of justice keep turning.
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