How a right wing Democrat won big in Miami
In Florida politics, upset elections are common. Whether it is the close presidential elections of 2000 and 2016, or the razor thin margins of Gov. Rick Scott, many elections are hard to predict. However one Miami area State Senate election has sent shock waves through the Florida Democrats and many Miamians alike. The State Senate District 38, lying in one of the most liberal areas of Florida, elected an anti-abortion, anti-LGBT and socially conservative Democrat, Daphne Campbell.
Campbell was not expected to win the primary of the district and avoided forums and events featuring most of the other candidates during the primary, and yet won by eight points and went on to dominate on Nov. 8.
Daphne Campbell was the State Rep. for Florida’s district 108 in the State House since 2010, and has on some bread and butter liberal issues such as social security and the environment toed the party line. Despite this, she holds staunchly conservative policies, and associated heavily with the religious right in Florida’s State House. During a debate on the State House floor on parental notifications for abortions, she quoted directly from the bible and said later that “bible principles” were guiding her.
In response to a threat from one Democratic State Representative that he would fund a primary challenger against her, Campbell replied “God put me here.” Campbell’s ringing 0 percent rating from Planned Parenthood does not provide much confidence either in her abortion policy for liberals. Her socially conservative streak doesn’t end at abortion either, as many have criticized her for anti-LGBT policies, most recently co-sponsoring HB 583, a clone of the infamous North Carolinian HB 2, which discriminated against transgender individuals for using a bathroom different than their birth gender.
Although she has been more quiet on her conservative stances on other issues, Campbell has also voted against bills pertaining to union rights and opposed increased state intervention into assisted living facilities.
Campbell has also been investigated by the IRS because of business dealings with her medical practice and her son, Gregory Campbell, was convicted on multiple charges of Medicaid fraud in 2013 (Campbell had a long outburst on the floor of the State House when her son’s conviction was headed for a retrial and had to be escorted out of the chamber earlier in 2016) which weighed heavily against her during the primary.
Campbell’s victory against five other candidates on the ballot in the primary then seems odd. With the heavy hitters being former state prosecutor Jason Pizzo and former Miami Beach city commissioner Michael Góngora heading off at each other, they both took Campbell’s defeat for granted, believing that the liberals of this heavily Democratic area would never vote for a conservative like Campbell. In fact, they were right in a way. 79.9 percent of the 29,078 votes cast were for Democrats that expressed themselves as liberals or even progressives.
Campbell’s victory was due to two main reasons. The first was Campbell winning over many Haitian-Americans in the district. Their involvement in the race increased significantly when the incumbent State Sen. Gwen Margolis made a series of derogatory comments towards the three Haitian-American candidates in the race and subsequently dropped out after the controversy. Neither Góngora or Pizzo made a large enough effort to attract Haitian-Americans to their campaigns either. Campbell’s district and main body of support was also located in an area of Miami that contained many Haitian-Americans, and thus already had connections to the community.
The other main factor might as well prove Campbell’s claims of divine intervention in her political career. The heavy rains resulting from Hurricane Hermine brushing by Miami on the Aug. 30, primary election day, depressed turnout in the coastal areas of District 38, those areas being mainly Hispanic and White. This lower turnout in much of Miami, a mere 20.4 percent in Miami-Dade County, helped Campbell out as her Haitian-American base mainly did not live on the ocean.
All of this allowed Campbell to squeak through the primary and gain the Democratic nomination. Since the Republican Party of Florida declined to field a candidate in District 38, the only opposition of Campbell on Nov. 8 was former State Rep. Phillip Brutus running as an Independent. Brutus was a Democratic candidate, but dropped out of the primary after State Sen. Gwen Margolis declined to continue her candidacy. Brutus presented himself as a liberal alternative to Campbell and scored himself endorsements from unions, including the Florida AFL-CIO and LGBT advocacy groups. His ties to the Haitian-American community were also seen as pluses for him. Brutus even promised to rejoin the Democratic Party after the election.
However the leadership of the Florida Democratic Party did not go against Campbell, despite, in his slew of state legislative endorsements, President Barack Obama not endorsing Campbell. Brutus also had less money than Campbell, and as Campbell ran TV ads and put up signs across the district, Brutus had a much smaller presence, although his large signs were rather obvious to passing drivers. With almost no help and little of the dislike the other Florida Democrats had against Campbell coming out, Brutus never had a chance against Campbell’s campaign and the “D” next to Campbell’s name. He lost 25 percent to her 75 percent in November.
Daphne Campbell’s election punches a lot of holes in the vaunted liberalism of Miami. With such a diverse district, they elected a politician you’d more likely find in North Florida and the Panhandle. It seems as though the Democratic label was more than enough to win Campbell the election, as the more than 70 percent turnout of Miami-Dade does not lend to the same strategy being played again. It is a stark wake up call for liberals in Miami, and proof to LGBT Miamians that the struggle for equality is not won yet.
Regardless, State Senate Democrats now have to reconcile themselves to being in the same caucus as Campbell and her lack of party loyalty as well as conservatism. Will Democrats follow through on threats of a primary challenge once she is up for reelection, or will they wait for her retirement? Campbell does not have much higher to go for her political career, as statewide office would attract far more attention towards her record and her policies than on a smaller level. That is, however, what Democrats said about her State Senate run. The lesson for Democratic liberals certainly is that they should not be too confident of their dominance within the party, lest another “Campbell miracle” occur again.
