Democrats Bet on Florida as Unlikely Key to Beating Trump

Jeb Bush’s 1998 gubernatorial win put a Republican in Florida’s governor’s mansion for the first time since 1991, but it also marked the beginning of a trend that would shape the state’s politics for the next 25 years. Prior to the late 1990s, the Democratic Party had a political stronghold in Florida. Between 1877 and 1967, every Florida governor but one—the Prohibition Party’s Sidney Johnston Catts—was a Democrat. Before Mr. Bush’s victory in 1998, Republicans scored incremental victories and captured the state Senate in 1995 and the state House in 1997. Short of a few brief Democratic tenures in the offices of the attorney general, chief financial officer, and commissioner of agriculture, Republicans cemented their control of Florida’s government and won both of its seats in the U.S. Senate. No other Democrat has been able to replicate former President Barack Obama’s success when he won Florida’s 2008 and 2012 presidential elections....