For 25 years, the GOP has had almost exclusive control of the FL legislature & admin.
It fashioned every law it could to advantage Republicans, gerrymandered at a bionic level & stymied popular efforts to increase voter participation such as restoration of felon voting rights.
During that same time, the FL GOP poured MILLIONS into turning the state party into a sophisticated, permanent, well-funded voter contact machine.
This gave GOP candidates two massive advantages: 1) they didn’t have to spend on selling the GOP position, 2) all of
in-state messaging got backed up by the RNC, and most importantly, the constant drum beat of Fox News.
There is no biological way to overstate the advantage that Fox News gives to Republicans in red states. MSNBC is NOT the opposite of Fox News.
MSNBC does not structure its programming around whipping up white grievance and fear. Whereas Fox News is the propaganda arm of the RNC, MSNBC is the left leaning version of CNN, not the DNC.
So when I say that Fox News is a huge advantage for the GOP, I know of what I speak.
In FL, Dem candidates spend a inordinate amount of time debunking Fox News lies, even to died in the wool Dems.
Because GOP candidates at every level do not have to spend on messaging, and so not have to spend on attacking Dem policy, they spend almost exclusively on 2 things: