Republicans won every major race in Florida on Election Day. So why did Democrats fail so badly? WUSF speaks with Susan MacManus, political analyst and professor emeritus at the University of South Florida, about why the party is losing at the polls.

WUSF: I want to get your first impressions of what happened during the election and how it affected Florida overall.

– MacMANUS: It was clearly an economic vote. We have seen since the beginning of this year that when asked whether the nation is heading in the right direction, almost two-thirds said no until the election. And in Florida, according to exit polls, half of people said the economy wasn’t good. Previous polls have shown that even in Florida, a large percentage say they are struggling financially, so this takes precedence over all other issues.

I think where the Democrats went wrong was putting too much emphasis on reproductive rights and abortion. That’s important to some people, but polls in Florida consistently show that it’s never been the most important issue. So you should win by picking a topic that reaches the largest number of people.

READ MORE: Fewer Floridians voted in this election compared to 2020

On paper, this year looked like a really good year for Democrats to run for office in Florida. A majority of people approved of the abortion referendum, but 60 percent failed to pass, and women were particularly focused on Harris’ campaign. When you take these into account, the future for Democrats does not look bright in Florida.

Their biggest problem is how to communicate with the young population. While Democrats still have the idea that the young vote is all liberal and Democratic, 40% of Florida registrants actually registered as (no party affiliation). I’m talking about Gen Z and Millennials, but almost equal percentages are recorded as Democrats and Republicans.

Even for young people, the economy was a big problem.

I think the future of Florida Democrats depends on the young population, especially young women. Many ran for office. But the party doesn’t have a good track record on how to communicate with young voters in this state. They’ve struggled with this for two consecutive election cycles, and until they really figure out how to address this issue and communicate, they won’t be successful in statewide elections.

Republicans increased their lead in Tallahassee. Are Democrats becoming an endangered species in what was once the nation’s largest swing state? They don’t seem to have many benches.

They don’t have benches, but some of this is a choice, a strategy. Yes, it is important for the party to nominate candidates for all 120 seats in the Assembly and 20 seats in the Senate. But if you just do it and don’t give any money or help or really help people, especially a lot of these young candidates, know how to campaign, how to leverage networks, it doesn’t help. That’s why they’re spread so thin.

It would be better if their strategy was: Look, we’re not going to make a big comeback. We will take it one step at a time. But instead, they were announcing every day that Florida was still in the game, Florida was still in the game. It wasn’t. It’s hard to say Florida is still in the game when registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by 1 million.

Let me just talk about the women’s vote, because it’s so diverse in Florida. The idea that all women vote together on the same page, no, it’s not like that.

In terms of registration, I think the numbers are 37% registered Republicans, 36% registered Democrats, 24 or 25 NPAs, and the rest are other. This is not a group where they will all be on the same page.

So there was an expectation that Democrats had an old idea about Florida; This was that your people of color, especially your women and younger voters, are connected and more likely to vote Democratic. Maybe on some issues, but the economy was very depressing.

I want to talk to you about the Hispanic and Latino vote. Republicans have made great strides chasing the “socialist” label, especially in the Senate race with Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. Democrats have believed in the past that such demographic change would benefit them. But that doesn’t seem to work, does it?

No, it’s not like that. And actually a very famous scientist who wrote a book about how demography is destiny has now changed his mind. It doesn’t work like that at all. But as the old saying goes, in politics — and this is the driving force behind the Democrats — the pendulum often swings from one to the other gradually rather than quickly. That’s where step one is for Democrats to go back to the drawing board, do a really in-depth focus group, find out what strategies are working and what’s not.

It now appears nationally that all these celebrities aren’t doing much to attract young voters and get them all to vote Democratic. So they need to sit down and talk to real voters about some things, dig deep, and do it as quickly as possible.

READ MORE: Sen. Rick Scott will return to the US Senate after easy victory over Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell

And conversely, what did Republicans do right in Florida this year?

Their record of continuing their outreach and voter registration efforts throughout the year has paid off, and they are very good at finding new people moving to new areas, making sure they are contacted, registered, or switching parties. They are very, very good at this and keep track of what issues are coming up at a particular time, but recording is important.

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