I feel the much bigger red flag is the continued failure to beat an incumbent senator in close races in midterms; beyond wave years like 2006 & 2014 it's very hard & part of the reason why both 2016 & 2020 ended up being such failures for the democrats.
The fact that Rubio alone turned this race around in 2016 shows that it's an issue.
However this is a reason for the DSCC not to burn money; there's nothing stopping democrats in Florida using this race as a trial race & trying out a new or at least different strategy.
It's often forgotten how important even a losing statewide campaign can be for building up the party; the biggest problem for the democrats seems to be a belief that you can just build up a big campaign, pour $100 million in money into TV ads 3 months before an election & then re-assemble it every 2-4 years.
