A lighter shade of blue: Florida Democrats' share of voter base continues to slide

By Steve Bousquet of the Tampa Bay Times

In 2008, the year of Obama's first Florida victory, Democrats accounted for 42 percent of all voters and the party had a numerical advantage of more than 650,000 voters that fall. Republicans comprised 36 percent of the voter pool in 2008.

By June 1 of this year, Democratic registration had slipped four percentage points to 38 percent and the party's edge in raw numbers stood at fewer than 260,000 voters statewide, a modern low. But during that same eight-year period, the Republican share remains just below 36 percent, at 35.8.

Florida is seeing a surge of enthusiasm about the upcoming election, and that too is helping Republicans more than Democrats, in part because of Trump.

In the six months ending May 31, 311,000 voters joined the rolls or changed their party.

That total included 184,000 Republicans and 117,000 Democrats. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of voters who were NPAs or Democrats switched to the Republican Party so they could vote in the closed GOP residential preference primary in March.

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