There is a reason that President-elect Donald Trump has tapped so many Floridians to fill his administration. Part of it is proximity — Trump has a mansion in Palm Beach — but more than that, Florida is the breeding ground for the kind of government Trump envisions for his second term: A souped-up executive branch that has contempt for institutions; a talent for exploiting the resentment of working-class voters; a desire to give favorable treatment to donors; and an urge to aggressively use state power to attack dissenters.
Florida, which has been under unified Republican control for 25 years, has been the cradle of this type of government. Fueled by an ambitious governor and a Republican legislature focused on appealing to the party’s extremes, Florida became a fertile proving ground for the culture-war battles that ignited the MAGA movement and the authoritarian experimentation that followed. It’s given us the Proud Boys, Moms for Liberty, and is home to more Jan. 6 rioters arrested than any other state.
Two broad trends have made all this possible in Florida — and they’re dynamics that are gradually reshaping the rest of the US as well. The first: changing demographics plus a heavy dose of inequality.
Florida’s population is older and less white than most of America — putting it a decade ahead of where the rest of the country is going. “Every election, pollsters come to the state to do focus groups and test their messaging,” says Susan MacManus, professor emeritus of political science at the University of South Florida. “Because of our diversity, you can plop into any metro area and get just about whatever demographic you want to look at.”
Florida today is also economically more unequal than most states. That’s because a handful of states, Florida among them, have become a playground for billionaires and a magnet for retirees, even as those residents rely on the labor of foreign-born and low-wage workers.