Democratic strategist James Carville said Thursday Democrats would be “better off” focusing their efforts on Mississippi rather than Florida after Republicans swept the elections in the Sunshine State.
Carville joined MSNBC’s “The Reid Out” and was discussing the recent midterm elections and the difficulty of getting black voters to turn out. Carville said that Mississippi’s black population is nearly one-third of the state total, which means Democrats have some room for growth.
“A state that interests me a lot is Mississippi which is 37, maybe 38% black, it only votes 30. If you took your staff from 30 to 38, that’s a lot of votes. We don’t lose that bad in Mississippi. It’s not as many electoral votes, but we might be better off looking harder at Mississippi than Florida.”
“I don’t know that. I’m just throwing a riff off the top of my head. But it’s been very frustrating,” he added. (RELATED: ‘We Were Expecting More Of A Red Wave’: Ainsley Earhardt Clearly Confused After GOP Fails To Make Major Gains)
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis cruised to reelection Tuesday, beating Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points, winning 59.4% of the vote compared to Crist’s 40%. DeSantis also became the first Republican gubernatorial candidate to win the solid blue Miami-Dade county since 2002.
DeSantis beat Crist among college-educated voters by 13 points even though nationally Republicans trailed Democrats by 6 points in this category. DeSantis also outperformed Republicans among Latino voters, winning them by an 18-point margin.
In Mississippi, election managers echoed Carville’s concerns, noting that turnout was lower overall, although the demographic breakdowns have not been released yet.