It wouldn’t be a real Florida election without a wild card or two, so now the 2024 election features the surprising possibility of Democrats becoming overconfident.
This is a party in a 25-year slump. The party that holds no statewide office and, by the Nov. 5 election, will probably be outnumbered by 1 million voters in registration. The party that usually raises $1 for each $2 or $3 raised by Republicans.
But on April Fools’ Day, the Florida Supreme Court handed the Democrats not one but two political gifts.
By a 6-1 vote, the justices upheld a law forbidding abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy — which triggered a revised statute lowering the limit to six weeks. At the same time, justices voted 4-3 to allow a November referendum on a proposed constitutional amendment that would basically tell the state that abortion is a matter for women and their doctors to decide.
The high court also gave a green light to another proposed constitutional amendment, which would allow recreational use of marijuana. That might help Democrats more than the GOP at the polls. But abortion is the big referendum this year.
Read the rest of Bill Cotterell’s latest Capitol Column.