{"id":345193,"date":"2026-07-19T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/345193\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T12:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T12:00:17","slug":"pete-buttigiegs-message-to-florida-democrats-no-such-thing-as-a-permanently-red-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/345193\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Buttigieg’s message to Florida Democrats: ‘No such thing as a permanently red state’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rallying cry from the state Democratic Party\u2019s weekend gathering in Orlando: Florida is a comeback state.<\/p>\n

Democrats hope to build on a string of victories \u2014 including flipping the state House district that includes Mar-a-Lago \u2014 after years of GOP dominance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to remind you that there is no such thing as a permanently red state,\u201d keynote speaker Pete Buttigieg said Saturday at the Leadership Blue<\/a> conference, held at Disney\u2019s Coronado Springs Resort.<\/p>\n

Buttigieg, the former U.S. Transportation Secretary under President Joe Biden, slammed Republicans as unfit to lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need healthcare? They give you a culture war. You need better infrastructure? They give you a boat parade,\u201d he told the crowd of 1,000 elected officials and Democratic supporters. \u201cThe problem is they want to be put in charge of the government but they\u2019re bad at government. That affects everyday life for us and for our families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of helping Floridians with high property insurance and living costs, Republicans are gerrymandering voting maps, Buttigieg argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republicans in charge here haven\u2019t responded to policy failure by changing their policies. Instead, they\u2019re trying to just change the rules,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Buttigieg took shots at Republicans running for Governor, including James Fishback<\/a>, who has faced criticism for his remarks<\/a>, and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds<\/a>, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Buttigieg described Fishback as \u201can unbelievably disturbing extremist\u201d and Donalds as \u201cranked the second most far right-wing conservative in the entire U.S. House of Representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buttigieg drew laughter when he turned to U.S. Rep. Cory Mills<\/a>, whose ex-girlfriend was granted a restraining order<\/a>against him last year. \u201cI\u2019ll be old-fashioned, but I would argue that if you got a restraining order out against you,\u201d you probably shouldn\u2019t serve in Congress, Buttigieg quipped.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Randy Fine<\/a> was not spared in Buttigieg\u2019s roast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the cost of living out of control, our nation at war, Rep. Fine committed his time in Washington to developing important legislation like the \u2014 I\u2019m not making this up \u2014 Protecting Puppies from Sharia Law Act<\/a>,\u201d Buttigieg said.*<\/p>\n

Buttigieg told reporters afterward he believes Florida is more competitive this cycle than national pundits realize.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see enormous opportunity for Democrats. I see us competing in places that would\u2019ve been written off just a few months ago,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fact that Mar-a-Lago is now represented by a Democratic legislator right here in Florida, the fact that Miami voted for a Democratic mayor for the first time in basically a generation shows you that different things are possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Florida Democratic Party has launched voter registration drives on 12 college campuses over the past 18 months and is targeting vote-by-mail growth as part of its grassroots push, Chair Nikki Fried said Saturday.<\/p>\n

With songs like Tom Petty\u2018s \u201cI Won\u2019t Back Down\u201d as a backdrop, Democratic leaders including U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost<\/a>rallied the crowd, insisting Democrats can take back control of Congress and end the Republican supermajority in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida Democrats, let\u2019s be honest with ourselves. Many in this nation look at our state and they don\u2019t really see us. They see what we\u2019re up against. Today, many see a state not worth fighting for, but I\u2019m not concerned with what they have to say. In fact, I don\u2019t really give a damn,\u201d said Frost, an Orlando Democrat. \u201cOur message isn\u2019t about Democrat versus Republican. It\u2019s about the people versus the problem. Florida Democrats, the mission is simple. Take our message to every end of this state with an open hand and an open heart and we will win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rallying cry from the state Democratic Party\u2019s weekend gathering in Orlando: Florida is a comeback state. Democrats…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[445,3951,2659,28,9085,30,29,28912,141467,2223,11298,42601,9217],"class_list":["post-345193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-byron-donalds","tag-cory-mills","tag-disney-world","tag-florida","tag-florida-democratic-party","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-james-fishback","tag-leadership-blue","tag-maxwell-frost","tag-nikki-fried","tag-pete-buttigieg","tag-randy-fine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}