Amazes me how remarkably stable Florida has been. A state that I feel like should be leaning blue just hasn't done so.
Their white and minority electorates keep becoming more polarized, for some reason. I'm not sure why, exactly, since this isn't being seen in Georgia, or other swing southern states. (Maybe NC). FL whites voted 57-43% Republican in 2004 (or 2000), and voted 64-32% Republican in 2016. On the other hand Latinos swung from 56-44% Bush in 2004 to something on the order of 63-36% Clinton in 2016.
Consequently, FL is increasingly becoming racially polarized and so the GOP ekes out 2% wins, the Democrats take 2% wins here and there.
I'd like to see data on senior citizens in particular. I'll bet the >65 vote in FL has trended hard R since 2000. As recently as 2000 many white seniors were New Deal/FDR era types who were Yellow Dog Democratic. Many of those seniors are under ground now or in assisted living centers watching wheel of fortune and going to bed at 6:30 on election days. The newer batch of seniors retiring to Florida are Baby Boomers, and probably noticeably more Republican as a whole.
