In a race seen as a bellwether for Democratic chances in November, Democrat Tom Keen flipped what had been a Republican state House seat in Central Florida in a special election held Tuesday.
Keen, a Navy flight officer who works in the aerospace training and simulation industry, defeated Republican Erika Booth, a teacher and member of the Osceola School Board. Unofficial totals for the District 35 seat had Keen with 51.3% of the vote to Booth’s 48.7%.
“A huge THANK YOU to all our supporters, volunteers, and voters who believed in our vision for a better, brighter District 35,” Keen wrote on social media. “Your dedication, hard work, and votes have brought us to this incredible moment.”
Keen, who made abortion rights and property insurance key issues in the race, got between 65% to 70% of nonpartisan, or NPA, voters to make up for Republicans turning out in larger numbers than Democrats, said Matt Isbell, a Democratic elections analyst.
They’ve always turned out in large numbers. As a general rule Republicans can and will disagree on anything and still come together to try and fuck someone over. Democrats historically tend to argue and disagree while make choices on who or what they want in regards to their beliefs instead of specifically against someone or something else.
This isn’t accounting for a plethora of other reasons such as average demographics, Republican ease-of-voting in heavily gerrymandered districts and States, etc etc. I’m convinced one super solid election cycle, including local elections, would change things drastically. Unfortunately that is unbelievably unlikely to happen.
Whatever the reason, it’s about time those of us who do not agree with the modern Republican party begin to take risks. We need to run in local elections. We must take seats of authority. We cannot allow these evil and malicious people to constantly go unchallenged.