Democrats who controlled the state legislature were worried that holding their gubernatorial elections in presidential years, when more Republican voters showed up at the polls, threatened their solid grip on state politics.
So a group of rural segregationist Democrats called a special statewide election to change the year in which Florida elected its governors. Voters approved the change, shifting gubernatorial elections to midterm years, rather than presidential years.
Several decades later, this backfired on the Democrats.
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Several decades later, this backfired on the Democrats.
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Looks less like backfiring on Democrats and more like benefiting rural folk both times
And they’re more likely to vote during the midterms anyway.
Also, it didn’t really backfire on the segregationist Democrats (aka Dixiecrats) who did it; they eventually migrated to the Republican Party.
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