Florida Republicans are supremely confident about victory in November — and wary of the perils of overconfidence.
Party activists, candidates and elected officials who gathered Saturday in Hollywood for a major Republican Party of Florida fundraiser predicted widespread wins.
“If anybody thinks we’re going to lose, if anybody thinks in any way that Donald Trump is going to lose Florida, they’re crazy,” said U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. “The turnout in Florida all across the state for Republicans is incredible. We’re going to have a great year.”
Scott, especially, hopes that’s the case. He’s up for reelection this year, and some public opinion polls have shown a close race. (An Emerson College/The Hill poll on Friday showed Scott with 46% to 45% for his Democratic challenger, former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.)
Attempting to keep party activists and donors motivated in the final stretch of the campaign season, speaker after speaker brought up a powerful motivator: the specter of Vice President Kamala Harris winning the presidency.
There was at least as much, if not more, condemnation of Harris as there was praise for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
“We have the most radical ticket on the Democrat side in my lifetime,” Scott declared. “She’s a complete socialist.”
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis continued on that theme, using a label Trump has applied to Harris: “Comrade Kamala.” In South Florida, home to many people who have fled repressive regimes, Republicans often use the socialist label in an attempt to vilify Democrats.
State Attorney General Ashley Moody said “everyone’s heads are spinning” at the Harris candidacy.
“I have never seen a candidate running on such thin air, smoke and fumes,” she said. “There is no substance. No substance at all.”
Moody said Harris will offer a “word salad,” will “cackle” and “will be who you want her to be, she will say what you want her to say” to win — and become different and dangerous if she is inaugurated president.
The Trump campaign dispatched Kimberly Guilfoyle as its surrogate to the event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood.
Guilfoyle is a former Fox News personality, longtime fiancée of Donald Trump Jr. and host of a show on the right-wing video platform Rumble.
Guilfoyle warned about “America-last madness” and “extreme left-wing rule” from the Democrats.
“Americans today walk out their door in the morning with less money in their pocket, with less safety on their streets, less sanity in their schools and with less confidence that the country that we all love and hold dear to our hearts can reach its full potential,” she said. “Why? Because of Kamala Harris.”
Guilfoyle asserted that the vice president’s “radicalism is all too real. Pay attention to it. And her obsessive, reckless pursuit of power at all costs would take this nation down the path it may never recover from…. But the good news is that Donald Trump, and the Republican Party, has a plan to get this country back on track.”
She later offered more criticism of the Democratic nominee. “Kamala Harris wants Americans to feel like the enemy in their own country.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis, delivering the keynote address, said Florida during his time in office has “led the way” on issue after issue. “We have delivered over and over again.”
He touted more funding for schools, infrastructure and Everglades restoration. And he highlighted some of the culture war social issues that have been a hallmark of his administration.
“We believe schools should educate, not indoctrinate, our kids. It was wrong to try to jam gender ideology into elementary school classrooms. It’s wrong to distort history and try to make Founding Fathers villains,” he said.
And he proudly pointed to the tough response at Florida state universities to pro-Palestinian protests, which he called pro-Hamas. “We’re not going to let the inmates run the asylum. We’re going to have order in the court.”
“We said that Florida is where woke goes to die and I can report to you that the woke ideology is dead in the state of Florida,” he said.
DeSantis also repeated his strong opposition to two referendums on the November ballot that would legalize recreational marijuana for adults and enshrine abortion rights in the Florida Constitution.
Both would be “really bad for the state of Florida.”
Attendees also heard from U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Miami-Dade County Republican who is the senior member of Florida’s congressional delegation. Three of the speakers, Moody, Patronis and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, are potential candidates for the Republican nomination for governor in 2026, when term limits prevent DeSantis from running again.
DeSantis demands Republicans publicly oppose amendment to add abortion rights to Florida Constitution
Evan Power, chair of the state Republican Party said in an interview that party activists are “excited and fired up.”
Among them is JoAnn DeBartolo, the state Republican committeewoman from Collier County, who said she was “feeling very good. I can see the momentum.”
And Charles “Chuck” Benoit, who won the election for Lake County Republican state committeeman in last month’s primary, predicted “a landslide.” When he’s been out registering voters, he said Democrats sometimes confide that they plan to vote for Trump. “The only reason President Trump has a hard time is that nobody likes him — except the American people,” he said in an interview.
Still, Power said during his speech that the party faithful should not assume the results will go their way without work. “We take nothing for granted. We must run like we’re 10 points behind. There is no room for complacency in the Republican Party of Florida.”
One big advantage for Republicans, cited by DeSantis and several others on Saturday: the party’s 1 million advantage over the Democrats in registered voters. When DeSantis was elected governor and Scott was first elected to the Senate in 2018, Democrats had more registered voters than Republicans.
DeSantis said the elections can’t be taken for granted, “but with numbers like that, that’s a big layup for Republican candidates.”
Patronis attributed much of the change to people moving to Florida
“Never did I think Florida would be a solid red state,” Patronis said. “The ones we’re getting are the ones we want. They’re fleeing the deep blue states. They’re fleeing the high-tax hellholes they’re coming from.”
Money is another Republican advantage. Power said the state Republican Party has outraised the Democrats 7 to 1.
Saturday night’s event may end up bringing in $1 million, he said. Making the night more profitable: the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino donated the event venue. Power thanked the Seminole Tribe of Florida more than once for its support, as did Patronis.
“Special thanks to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Hard Rock [for] the amazing support of tonight’s event. This could not happen without [Seminole Tribe] Chairman Osceola and Jim Allen [CEO of Seminole Gaming] and their incredible generosity,” Patronis said, adding that a Friday night reception was “by far one of the nicest parties I’ve been to in years. Great event.”
The free location wasn’t the only reason for holding the event in Broward, the most Democratic county in Florida. The state Republican Party, Power said, has lots of donors in the region.
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
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