Both Republicans and Democrats are conceding in a slew of races for the state Legislature this year. Almost two-thirds of all of Florida House races have just one party running and there’s even less competition in the state Senate.
Election Day is almost eight months away and so far, there are just a few state House and Senate races with both a Republican and a Democrat running.
According to The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 79 of the 120 Florida House races do not have candidates from both parties.
In the Florida Senate, where there are 20 seats up grabs this year, only four elections have both Republican and Democratic challengers.
Susan Macmanus, a political expert and professor at the University of South Florida, said this is a pattern seen all over the country.
“It is one of the things that people find most frustrating about the political system today is that you have so few seats that are really contested and up for grabs,” she said. “It’s what makes a lot of people cynical about politics and it certainly can depress turnout.”
Macmanus said a couple of factors are to blame. For one, many Florida districts are drawn in a way that favors one party over the other.
Second: incumbents, who are better connected and raise more money, tend to scare off challengers. This makes most people interested in running wait until a lawmaker is term-limited.
Lastly, MacManus said people with the same political values have become more geographically concentrated in the past several years.
