Tuesday’s election in Miami, Florida, sent a shockwave through the Republican Party.
The warning signs were there, but once again, they were ignored, and this time the GOP lost a race it should have won.
Now everyone is going to be asking whether the Trump magic is gone, but we'd better start asking far more serious questions.
There is no arguing that Donald Trump has a successful track record with his endorsements, but that ledger is also filled with a lot of late endorsements of candidates who were locks to win their races.
This time, Emilio Gonzalez really needed help from Trump to win the Miami mayoral race, but all he got was a post on Truth Social backing his candidacy for a job that only one Democrat has won in the past 30 years.
Trump, in part, posted, “As Miami’s next Mayor, he will fight tirelessly to Grow the Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Advance MADE IN THE U.S.A., Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE, Keep our now very Secure Border, SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment. Emilio T. Gonzales [sic] has my Complete and Total Endorsement.” That message was posted about a month ago for an election that took place on Dec. 9. And once again, the lack of effort from Republicans and the RNC to back a candidate backfired.
Gonzalez ran against Democrat Eileen Higgins, who dominated the first round of the election, winning 35.95% of the vote, nearly doubling Gonzalez's share.
The warning sign here was that a Democrat was in third place, getting 17.57% of the vote, with two Republicans and an independent trailing for a total of 21.58% of the vote. If you gave Gonzales that full allocation of votes, he would have barely beaten Higgins, but remember, there was more than 17% Democrat vote still out there.
What’s more is that the election became a matter of Trump versus Democrats, and it really had nothing to do with the candidates themselves. It was Trump’s economy and immigration agenda on the ballot, but Trump and the RNC were nowhere to be found.
What bothers me about this is that Trump is in Florida every weekend, so why not hold events, make some personal appearances, and shake a few hands to help the party's candidate? Where was the RNC, JD Vance, and Gov. Ron DeSantis?
I would call this a shocking loss, but I could have predicted this as easily as the sun coming up. Not only did Higgins get all the excess Democrat vote, but she also appeared to pick up most of the independent vote as well, notching 59.46% on election day to 40.54% for Gonzalez.
DNC Chair Ken Martin was elated with the outcome, stating, "Tonight’s result is yet another warning sign to Republicans that voters are fed up with their out-of-touch agenda that is raising costs for working families across the country.”
When I said that the recent New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial and New York City mayoral elections were warnings not so much because they were losses but more for the way in which they were lost, I was mocked. When I said that a Republican special election win in Tennessee was not secured by a large enough margin, I was mocked.
Well, now we just lost a seat we have held for the better part of 30 years, so maybe that will get people’s attention. I am not hard on Trump because I dislike the man; I am hard on him because I can see what is happening to the GOP and the conservative movement in general. This is war, folks, and right now we are falling behind.
We have 11 months, but really only about nine when you consider when it is that people tend to make up their minds. We are facing a critical midterm election cycle, and if we lose that, we will likely lose the White House in 2028. This is a wake-up call, so stop making excuses and start doing something to fix it. And yes, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, and Mr. Senator Majority Leader, I am speaking directly to you.
