How a Purple State Got a Bright Red Sheen
States, as Louis Brandeis said, have long been the laboratories of democracy. Today, they can also serve as the laboratories of authoritarianism—the places where a radicalized Republican Party tries to enact its agenda after a disappointing legislative record during Donald Trump’s presidency.
If one had to guess where the vanguard of MAGA policy making might be, the natural guess would be some historical redoubt of conservatism with an overwhelming Republican majority: the usual behemoth, Texas, perhaps, or a rural red state such as South Dakota, or a deep-South staple such as Mississippi. Some of those states have pushed the envelope on abortion and other culture-war issues, but the clear vanguard of Republican policy-making creativity at this moment is in Florida.
This isn’t an intuitive result. Florida isn’t bright red but a long-standing swing state. No presidential candidate has won it. Democrat Joe Biden lost it by less than 3.5 percentage points in 2020. In recent years, voters have approved a series of progressive ballot initiatives by large margins, including felon re-enfranchisement, medical-marijuana legalization, and a minimum-wage increase.
