Why is the Tampa metro area so Republican?

[Sol]

Lots of retirees like elsewhere in Florida, and in places (especially Hernando and Pasco) kind of a similar dynamic to other communities in Florida, like St. Lucie, where the retirees have skewed a bit working class/lower middle class and have consequently swung to Democrats Republicans. You also have the general turnover of retirees to a more conservative generational cohort as a factor too.

Tampa is not really the sort of place which would be very attractive to liberal white people; its economy is not particularly dependent on high education industries that tend to be correlated with more Democratic white voters.