Miami-Dade voters painted the town red Tuesday when ballots counted showed that Republican candidates had won all but one local partisan race.
The only exception: Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who handily beat her opponent, Jesus Navarro, with 71% of the vote.
But led by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio, who each won with comfortable margins, several federal, state senate and house candidates surfed the red wave into GOP victories.
Most notably, Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, who handily beat State Sen. Annette Taddeo after months of speculation that this was a flippable seat. What happened to all those polls?
¿Y quien soporta a Maria Elvira ahora?
Read related: Push poll in CD27 shows Maria Elvira Salazar fears Annette Taddeo in general
Salazar’s 57% was a smaller victory than the other two GOP congressional wins — Mario Diaz Balart got 70% and Carlos Gimenez got 64% — but still had a double digit lead that should be embarrassing to the Dems. Taddeo only pulled 43%.
In another seemingly competitive race, Alexis Calatayud beat healthcare executive and cancer survivor Janelle Perez, 54% to 46%. All those negative mail pieces must have helped.
Calatayud has worked for a number of Republican electeds, including outgoing State Rep. Vance Aloupis.
Read related: Alexis Calatayud comes out with ‘sick’ hit ad vs Janelle Perez in FL senate race
Alina Garcia — who has worked for former Congressman David Rivera, former Sen. Frank Artiles, Hialeah Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo when he was a county commissioner, and Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo — handily beat Christie Cantin Davis. Who? Exactly.
The Florida Democratic Party failed with that race and with the race against Sen. Ileana Garcia, who won her seat two years ago through fraud and a plantidate. Why couldn’t they help Raquel Pacheco, a soldier and single mom who could have presented a great choice — if voters had known.
The party also failed Adam Benna, who challenged and lost to State Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera, whose biggest success in her first two years was getting $250,000 to a community organization that later gave her a job. She won comfortably with 56% of the vote.
In District 106 and 113 the races were much closer. Former reality TV star Fabian Basabe won in 106 with 236 more votes than Jordan Leonard. In 113, Vicky Lopez beat Alessandro “A.D.” D’Amico with 51% of the vote.
According to the Miami-Dade Elections Department vote summary, 715,908 of the county’s 1,529,439 registered voters turned out. Even before voting started on Election Day Tuesday, there were 475,000 ballots cast between mail-in or absentee ballots and early voting. Another 230,074 voters cast ballots on Election Day.
The total number of early voters was 243,654, which is a bit more than those who turned in ABs, which was 242,243, according to the Miami-Dade Elections Department.
That’s as new as this Republican majority.
Republicans beat Democrats across the board in Miami-Dade added by Ladra on
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