The Florida elections certainly produced some interesting results. Puerto Rican voters may have helped Scott make it to the Senate. And DeSantis did really well with black women despite the constant accusations of racism.
Star Parker noted that DeSantis may have won because of black voters.
White Democrat Nelson got 90 percent of the black vote and Republican Scott got 10 percent.
In the governor’s race, black Democrat Gillum got 86 percent of the black vote, four percentage points less than Nelson, against Republican DeSantis’ 14 percent.
Given the razor-thin margins, that difference in black support meant a lot.
When Gillum finally conceded the election, he was behind by 33,683 votes. Each one percent of the black vote equated to about 10,000 votes. So if Gillum had received 90 percent of the black vote, as did Nelson, rather than 86 percent, he could well have had another 40,000 votes, which would have been his margin of victory.
Looking at the CNN exit polls turns up another angle.
Gillum scored 91% of the vote among black men, but only 82% of the vote among black women.
DeSantis actually won 18% of black women.
Those are interesting numbers and perhaps they suggest that in the age of identity politics, sometimes gender trumps race.
The Washington Post recently ran a piece attacking black men for not coming out in larger numbers for Stacey Abrams. This may be a counterpart to that.
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