Citrus remains deep red

By John Labriola - Citrus County was apparently immune to the blue craze that swept the nation last week. 

On Election Day, Democrats ran 10 to 20 points ahead of their normal levels of support across America, giving them their largest congressional majority since Watergate as well as a sizable U.S. Senate majority that featured Democratic victories in a number of deep-red states.

And yet Citrus County not only remained red, but it maintained the lopsided conservative margins of past elections. The county again gave all the Republican candidates huge numerical margins that kept the Democratic challengers below 30 percent of the vote – contributing to the narrow statewide wins of all five statewide Republican candidates – and reelected U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee and State Rep. J.J. Grow by the same margin. The decision by Grow's primary opponent Tod Cloud to bolt the party and endorse Grow's liberal Democrat opponent had no impact on the outcome of that race.

Citrus also voted for Amendment 3 by a 70.1 to 29.9 margin, helping it clear the necessary 60 percent threshold statewide. Championed by term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis, the amendment will bring major tax relief to homeowners and dramatically reduce wasteful local spending across the state. DeSantis will hold one final special session this year to enact legislation to implement the amendment.

Statewide, U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody narrowly beat avowed socialist Angie Nixon, and Byron Donalds won the governorship by defeating Democrat David Jolly by just over one percentage point. Donalds will work with an all-Republican cabinet made up of Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, and Agriculture Secretary Wilton Simpson, all of whom won their statewide elections by just two percentage points.

Republicans also maintained control of both chambers of the Florida Legislature, although they lost their supermajorities. And as the rest of the country lurches to the left, Florida seems poised to demonstrate why conservative principles work better than socialism, identity politics and moral relativism.

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