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Statewide, more than 30,000 Republicans switched to other parties in January. That reverses the trend going into the election, said Aubrey Jewett, associate professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. It was something Republicans had pointed to with great hope going into the election: Despite some of the polls, we ve gained registration. At least in the short run, this reverses that trend. One presumes there s a reason for it, and the biggest reason would certainly be (former President Donald Trump s) comments and behavior post-election including the riots on Capitol Hill, Jewett said.
Missed opportunity for Dems
The biggest beneficiary of the Republican defections has not been the Democratic Party, but the ranks of no-party affiliation (NPAs) followed by the Independent Party of Florida.
Like many other Volusia County Trump supporters, Towle doesn t find any connection between Trump s repeated false claims of election fraud and his hosting of a gathering of supporters on the morning of Jan. 6 and the assault on the Capitol Building that left five people dead and countless others shaken. I don t think (Trump) played any role in it. That had been talked about through Facebook before (Jan. 6) and I don t know why our intelligence agencies they knew about it so why they didn’t put more police to protect it? I don’t understand. And when you push people too far, you get wackos on the right or the left that will come out and they did what they did, Towle said, before blaming anti-fascist activists for stirring things up.
Volusia, Flagler officials condemn MAGA storming of U.S. Capitol
Volusia and Flagler County residents were among the pro-Donald Trump protesters who marched to the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, but it was unclear whether any participated in storming the building.
Some of the Make America Great Again demonstrators broke into the Capitol, forcing a delay in Congress certification of Joe Biden as winner of the presidential election, with members being evacuated.
Erika Benfield of DeBary was at the protest, listening to President Trump s speech decrying problems he had with the election despite state and federal officials repeated determinations that no widespread fraud had affected the outcome. She participated in the march that followed, describing it as peaceful when she got closest to the Capitol.