Abortion Could Give Democrats Victory In Florida

In January, anger over Republican restrictions on abortion in the state led a Democrat, Tom Keen, to flip a state House seat in Orlando.

Democrats aren’t pretending they can do the same thing with the state’s presidential vote, which is still likely to go to Donald Trump, but they believe championing reproductive freedom can help them regain a foothold in the statehouse in Tallahassee. They are eyeing a long-term strategy that begins with flipping at least five state House seats this November, unseating a Republican supermajority.

Anger over Republican-backed abortion bans may give Democrats an edge in November. But to build a lasting political coalition, Democrats in Florida and elsewhere may discover that the winning formula is as unglamorous as it is old: Find their voters, all of them. And give them every reason to head to the polls.

Nikki Fried, the last Democrat elected to statewide office in Florida — over half a decade ago, as agriculture commissioner — dug her heels into the carpeted floor. “It’s going to be women that are going to get us out of this,” Ms. Fried, now Florida’s Democratic Party chair, told a roomful of statehouse candidates, all of them women.

The Democrats had gathered in Miami to plot a comeback in Florida, where they have been largely ousted from power.

Central to their efforts is building on anger over the state’s new six-week abortion ban, which is among the most extreme in the country and is opposed by a majority of Florida voters, who have consistently said in polls they wanted more access to reproductive care, not less.