With the midterm elections just around the corner, party leaders in Florida are gearing up their campaigns to get out the vote. Many politicos are calling for a Democratic "blue wave" this year in response to the Trump presidency, but Republican leadership argues their party is equally if not more engaged this election year.
Midterm elections traditionally see lower turnout than presidential elections, but 2018 may buck that trend. Just a few days into early voting and in Palm Beach and Broward Counties, the number of people who have early voted has already doubled 2014 numbers. In Miami-Dade County, that number has tripled.
Blaise Ingoglia is the chairman of the Republican Party in Florida. He's been a key advocate for gubernatorial candidate Republican Ron DeSantis as well as for the Republicans in races across the state. Ingoglia is in the midst of a reelection campaign himself, for Florida House District 35 in Hernando County on the Gulf coast north of Tampa.
Blaise joined Sundial prior to the gubernatorial debate in Broward County Wednesday, Oct. 24. The conversation focused on the reported blue wave for the midterms, Congressman DeSantis' campaign strategy and concerns about Florida's election systems.
WLRN: What's the strategy been like in these last few weeks in trying to get the Republican vote out?
INGOGLIA: Republicans all across the state are very energized and I think you see that in the numbers. I know a lot of these so-called politicos are assuming that there is going to be a 'blue wave.' You have early numbers in Palm Beach, Miami and in Broward County, which are Democrat strongholds, but the story that's not being told is that we are matching the Democrats in those numbers in other parts of the state. So we are turning out to vote. What we're seeing right now is Republicans turning out in record numbers. Another thing is a lot of these Democrats, who normally vote on Election Day, have requested absentee ballots and they've already turned a lot of those in. So that's not good news for the Democrats and it bodes very well for us going into the final days of this election.
You talk about the blue wave, but we look at past presidents and we've seen in the midterms a House or Senate will flip. When a party is in control, the opposition is a little more galvanized. What's been the feeling and the emotion for Republicans [this election] and how do you stay in control?
We go out, we tell our story and we tell the story about what the opposition wants to do. If we're talking about the state of Florida, if we're talking about Ron DeSantis versus Andrew Gillum, just look at the spending plan that Andrew Gillum wants to impose on the state of Florida. It's so large that the only way you could possibly pay for it is with the state's income taxes. The reason why people move to our state is because it is low-cost. They're coming here because there is no state income tax, so if we go out and we tell the story about spending and how Andrew Gillum wants to basically spend us into oblivion. That's a story that we will gladly take to the voters.
Let's take a look at tonight's gubernatorial debate. This is the second one. What's the strategy for tonight for Mr. DeSantis?
I think the strategy for DeSantis is to clearly contrast the policies that have clearly worked over the past eight to 20 years. The reason why we're so successful is because we're cutting taxes. I think you're going to hear a lot about that during the last debate, that Andrew Gillum basically lied to everyone on national TV saying that he paid for those trips. Now clearly he didn't.
You're talking about the news story that came out about a trip that he took to New York and tickets to the show Hamilton and whether he paid for them or not.
Yes, so [Gillum] was challenged at the last debate and asked if he did pay for them and he said that he DID pay for them. Now we know via text messages that he knew that an FBI undercover agent paid for them and that is illegal. Whether it was first-hand or second-hand information that is against the law.
Florida is in the spotlight. The nation is watching the governor's race and the Senate race between Gov. [Rick] Scott and the incumbent Bill Nelson. Have you spoken to election officials across the state about the preparations for Nov. 6?
One of our big concerns is getting people to vote in the Panhandle. Whether they are Democrat, Republica, or Independent we want to make sure that the people who are willing to vote and are able to vote can vote in the Panhandle. That's important to us. So while they're fixing their communities, while we are praying for them and their families... if they want to be able to get to the polls they should have access to the polls. [Another] big concern is the supervisor of elections in Broward County. We've [RNC] had to sue her multiple times just to get her to follow the law. We are hearing some anecdotal stuff now where we've had people request absentee ballots weeks ago and they haven't received them yet. That's a concern for us. We're going to continue watching that situation.
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