James Carville Suggests Dems Abandon Ruby-Red Florida: ‘Might be Better Off Looking Harder at Mississippi’
James Carville suggested Democrats take a look at the Mississippi Delta for votes as Tuesday’s election results in Florida made it clear the state is a Republican stronghold for now.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) carried all but five of the Sunshine State’s 67 counties while also managing to win Miami-Dade County. He defeated Democratic opponent Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points as Republicans down the ballot also won big – especially compared to how Republicans fared in other states.
The Democratic Party strategist joined MSNBC’s The ReidOut on Thursday where host Joy Reid talked about a strategy regarding how to reach voters where Republicans might be more vulnerable, such as North Carolina and Louisiana.
“Even in places that were more distant, [Louisiana Democratic Senate nominee] Gary Chambers pointed out there was not much work by the state party in your home state of Louisiana,” Reid told Carville. “[Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)] only got 800,000-some odd votes. Does the party do better on that score?”
Carville explained the key to Democrats being competitive in states such as Louisiana and Mississippi is Black voter outreach:
[State Democrats] had a very difficult time in the last year, obviously, and I’ll just leave it at that. You’ve got to understand, Louisiana is about 33% Black total population. It’s very rare, if we could get the Black contribution to 33 – that never happens, or seldom happens – we’d be in a lot better position. A state that interests me a lot is Mississippi which is 37 – maybe 38% Black. It only votes 30. Well, if you got your share from 30 to 38, that’s a lot of votes.
“We don’t lose that bad in Mississippi,” Carville added. “It’s not as many electoral votes, but I think Democrats might be better off looking harder at Mississippi than Florida. I don’t know that. I’m just throwing a riff off the top of my head. But it’s been very frustrating.”
Louisiana and Mississippi have a combined 14 electoral votes compared to Florida’s 29.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
