Florida’s Early Voting Shows Just How Pissed People Are at Republicans

Even in the deep red state of Florida, Americans are feeling a bit more liberal.Republicans are still projected to win the Sunshine State, but by a much smaller margin: Early voting results out of Florida revealed a massive Democratic shift compared to the last election cycle.On the first day of early voting in 2024, Republicans led by 24.7 percentage points. On Monday, the party led by a mere fraction of a percentage point—marking a 24.4 percent shift toward the Democratic Party.That pattern remained true through the second day of early voting, as well. At the same point in the race in 2024, Republicans held a 26.1 percent advantage. On Tuesday, they were ahead by just 2.4 percent, a 23.8 percent shift, according to data shared by VoteHub’s Zachary Donnini.“I expect this shift to narrow substantially, but yesterday was another decent day for Democrats in FL,” Donnini wrote on X Wednesday morning.So far, more than 1.06 million ballots have been cast across Florida. Roughly 6.1 million remain.Florida isn’t the only state feeling the changing tide. A blue wave is expected to sweep the country this year, potentially transforming both the House and Senate following an abysmal second-term performance by President Donald Trump.A spate of election-bound MAGA personalities have already broken from Trump and his agenda in an attempt to curry favor with their local electorates. The growing list includes Florida Representatives Maria Elvira Salazar and Byron Donalds (the latter of whom is running for Florida governor), Maine Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles, and Texas Republican congressional candidate Carlos De La Cruz.Some hopeful office seekers have even stripped their websites and campaign materials of Trump’s name, taking advice that the White House offered in July when staffers explicitly encouraged midterm-bound Republicans to split from Trump and his sinking reputation.Top issues weighing down Trump’s popularity include the seemingly endless Iran war, the rising cost of living, an economy and supply chain thrown out of whack by the president’s reckless tariffs, the cost of health care, and the encroachment of artificial intelligence and the industry’s data centers into American communities—a hot topic that Trump has unequivocally backed.Nonetheless, Trump has insisted that the midterms should once again be a referendum on his popularity—a detail that isn’t likely to help anyone currently on the campaign trail.Read more about early voting:President Donald Trump warned he’d send “no money” to poisoned veterans if Republicans did not win the House and Senate in November, marking a new low for his shoddy midterms campaign. Speaking at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, Tuesday, Trump promised that if Republicans kept control of Congress, he’d direct the Department of Justice to “settle all remaining legitimate claims” made by the victims of contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.“If we don’t win, there’s no money. If we do win, you’re getting it, it’s going to be finally over with that nightmare that’s been going on for so many years. We will never abandon the heroes who served America,” Trump said. But the president seemed perfectly willing to abandon veterans if he doesn’t see the results he wants in the midterm elections.Trump claimed that the DOJ had already delivered $1 billion in cash settlements to veterans and their families who were exposed to the water contaminated with highly toxic chemicals between August 1953 and January 1987. The law that created the pathway for those harmed to receive compensation was first signed by President Joe Biden in 2022. Last month, the DOJ announced that it had made offers exceeding $1.1 billion, and had delivered payouts exceeding $879 million. Making good on the government’s promise wasn’t the only thing Trump dangled in front of North Carolina voters: The president also pledged that the Department of Defense would invest $1.5 billion to produce semiconductor chips in the state. Trump made a similar promise that the DOD would invest $100 million in Kentucky to revitalize a drug manufacturing facility—but only if Republicans win the midterm elections. It seems like a lot of money to be bandying about, considering that he still owes every American $5,000. Read more about the rally:The Department of Justice’s purported list of noncitizen voters contains quite a few people who say they were born in the United States.In court documents filed Tuesday, Los Angeles County election officials wrote that a list that the DOJ provided to them with 20,000 supposed noncitizens voting in California was inaccurate, The Guardian reports. The department sent the list to the local officials last week and gave California 48 hours to hold the voting ballots of everyone on the list until their citizenship could be proven. After the election officials refused, the DOJ sued the state on Thursday.Aman Bhullar, who works in the Los Angeles County clerk and recorder’s office, said in a court declaration that “among the records for which birthplace information was meaningfully reported, 38.9 percent indicated that they were born in the United States.”County officials made observations of the list based on a sample of 200 people. Bhullar said in his declaration that 43 percent of the people on the list had a voter registration that was cancelled, 71 percent of people in the sample had never voted, and 86 out of the 200—less than half of the people in the sample—had been mailed a ballot this year.The DOJ’s list contained other errors as well. The court filing asserts that only 7,000 of the people on the list had addresses in the county.The list was put together by the Department of Homeland Security, which has not shared with California (or any other states) how it matches people’s voter data with citizenship records, despite demands from state governments looking for more information before complying with the Trump administration’s orders to hand over their voter rolls.Los Angeles is not even the first locality to find errors from the DHS. The department accused the state of Nevada of having up to 16,000 noncitizens registered to vote, but not a single name was right. The Trump administration, despite its mistakes, remains defiant and insistent that states must comply with its orders.“Just because an alien says on a form that they are a citizen doesn’t make them eligible to vote,” DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels told The Guardian. “California cannot facilitate the violation of federal law. We notified California that noncitizens are likely registered to vote, and we asked the state to independently verify the citizenship of any ballots cast by people on a list that we provided. It refused to do so. Federal law doesn’t permit this willful blindness.”Meanwhile, a select group of federal officials are actually working secretly with state governments who are alarmed at the possibility that President Trump will interfere with November’s midterm election results. Donald Trump flew to North Carolina in an attempt to rescue Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, but apparently even the president has given up on the liberal-favored race.Speaking at a midterm rally in Greenville Tuesday evening, the president effectively confessed that Whatley has no chance of winning on Election Day. Instead, Trump remarked that the Democratic Senate candidate, former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, is “going to become your senator.”“It’s crazy,” Trump mumbled.Trump repeated himself later in the rally, claiming: “It’s crazy, you’re going to send him to Washington to represent you.”The GOP similarly gave up on Whatley earlier this month, shifting millions of dollars in resources away from the state after it became evident that he was unlikely to surmount Cooper’s growing odds. Cooper held a double-digit lead over Whatley as of Tuesday, according to an Elon University poll that found 52 percent of registered voters would vote for Cooper, while 39 percent would vote for Whatley.“I’m the one who got him into this,” Trump laughed nervously with the crowd Tuesday evening. “I hope it works out.”But that was about as optimistic as Trump got. Other portions of Trump’s sprawling rant included comments about former NFL coach Jon Gruden, 9/11, descriptions of his dementia testing and—perhaps most bizarrely—compliments for Ohio Senator Jon Husted’s ass.“I’m studying his body. I’ve never studied the body of a man before. It’s not my thing. Nothing wrong with it, of course,” Trump chuckled. “But it’s never been my thing. But I looked at his ass.“And then I looked at his legs,” Trump continued. “And I said, ‘His ass, shit, it’s like a pile of muscle.’ Then I looked at his legs and I said, ‘Man, his feet are big.’ Then I tapped him on the shoulder, and it actually hurt my hand. It was like a piece of steel.”Incredibly, it was the second time that Trump has brought up Husted’s derriere in the past few days, having previously discussed the issue of national importance during a rally Saturday in Kentucky.Minnesota GOP House candidate Eric Pratt accidentally left an artificial intelligence prompt up on his website that showed him asking the AI tool to avoid talking about President Trump due to his dismal approval ratings. “Residents want everyday purchases to be affordable, bad actors to be held accountable, and for their reps to lead with common sense,” the prompt reads. “The President is not popular, so all messaging should be focused on local politics and needs.”While it has since been taken down, the mistake can still be viewed via the Wayback Machine. Pratt campaign websiteScreenshot/Pratt for CongressWhile it’s a bit bleak that a congressional candidate used AI to speak for him on his own website, Pratt’s gaffe reaffirms one of the most consistent dynamics of this midterm cycle: Trump’s tenure and record are a negative for Republicans going into November, not a plus. Gas prices are high due to the Iran war he started. Communities across the country are still being terrorized by immigration agents. Inflation has only gotten worse with tariffs. Things are getting so bad internally that candidates and GOP operatives are privately complaining about the hard place Trump has stuck them in. Texas Senate hopeful Ken Paxton called Trump a “drag” on his campaign in a leaked audio clip earlier this month. One GOP source told Politico that Trump’s unpopularity had made midterms “a lot more difficult to navigate.” “He has constantly been distracted and not focused on what the voters care about. It’s insane,” said another.This all comes as Trump’s approval rating hits a record low, at 33 percent according to a recent Washington Post poll. Pratt has yet to offer comment on his own situation, but the prompt does not inspire confidence in his chances against Democratic opponent Matt Little, especially in Minnesota’s 2nd district—a community that has seen perhaps the darkest side of the Trump administration in the wake of the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Pratt will have an uphill battle. The AI prompt certainly isn’t doing him any favors.