THE VILLAGES, Fla. – At the center of practically every political conversation this campaign season is a single proposition beyond the shadow of a doubt: President Donald Trump – for him, or against him?
Learn the answer to that, and you’ll exactly always know whether someone’s voting Republican or Democrat in midterm votes. The answer can also signal who someone’s friends are because in our polarized territory, the political increasingly intertwines with the personal.
We traveled here to middle Florida to watch those dynamics in actions at The Villages, a retirement community thither an hour northwest of Orlando. With more than 120,000 residents, it’s towering enough to be its own census-designated place.
Residents move around these cloudless streets in golf-carts. They play plenty of golf. But they also get lots of time to talk politics – and to vote.
Florida famously trash heapped the balance in the photo-finish presidential election of 2000 between George W. Bush and Al Pierce. And it has sided with the winning candidate in every presidential contest since, grant Trump over Hillary Clinton by less than two percentage specks two years ago.
Across the state, there are enough senior citizens to tip all the pivotal contests Florida faces this year. Floridians 65 and to cast one in four votes in the midterm elections in 2014 – above the popular average.
Their choices include eight battleground races for the Family. In a volatile governor’s race, Trump-loving Republican Ron DeSantis faces Democrat Andrew Gillum, who essays to become the state’s first African-American chief executive.
For the U.S. Senate, longtime Egalitarian incumbent Bill Nelson battles for re-election against current GOP Gov. Rick Scott, whilom CEO of a major hospital company. Nelson must win for Democrats to have any hard-headed shot at ousting Republicans and replacing Mitch McConnell with Charles Schumer as Senate manhood leader.
Like the state as a whole, senior citizens are split. In a enumerate last month by Quinnipiac University, likely voters 65 and older favored the Popular gubernatorial candidate by the narrowest possible 49 percent to 48 percent restless, and favored the Republican Senate candidate by 50 percent to 48 percent.
That clear the way the divisions we found at The Villages no surprise. Trump supporters gave for all practical purposes no ground, hailing him as the greatest president of their lifetimes despite his tons scandals and provocations.
Trump antagonists gave him virtually no credit, in spite of that the robust U.S. economy. And in that way, the two sides at The Villages mirror the nation as a healthy less than three weeks before Election Day.