Renewing Bond With the N.R.A., Trump Appeals for Help in the Midterms

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Mr. Duckworth added that the Trump-Pence tag team appearance was encouraging: “It’s very good that they’re supporting the N.R.A.”

The N.R.A. convention has unfolded, so far, as a display of strength and defiance for a group that is battling furious criticism from Democrats in Washington and on the midterm campaign trail. The N.R.A. has faced several policy setbacks on the state level in recent months, as Republican governors in Florida and Vermont signed gun restrictions the group opposed.

Yet if Parkland cast a shadow over the political speeches on Friday, it was a faint one.

The president alluded to the “monstrous attack” in Florida and described having been moved by his meetings with parents and survivors. But he dismissed gun-control proposals as ineffective, and pointed to a funding package for school-safety measures as an alternative.

Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence again called for allowing certain people to carry firearms on school property. And arguing that gun rights were at stake in November, Mr. Trump invoked foreign cities like Paris and London where firearms are harder to obtain and blamed those gun laws for acts of terrorism.

Mr. Trump mimicked what he described as the unimpeded massacre of unarmed people in a Paris terror attack: “Come over here — boom,” he said, imitating the firing of a gun with his hand.

If patrons had been armed, Mr. Trump said, things might have ended differently.

Mr. Cox, speaking minutes before Mr. Trump, acknowledged the “horrible tragedy” of the Parkland massacre, and emphatically rejected the stricter gun regulations that Democrats and some Republicans have proposed.

Rather than blaming gun owners for mass shootings, Mr. Cox said, Americans should reproach the institutions of government and law enforcement that fail to stop such killings. He criticized the F.B.I. and the Broward County, Fla., sheriff’s department for neglecting to act on repeated signals that Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland gunman, appeared to be violent and dangerous.

“The 5 million law-abiding men and women of the National Rifle Association will not accept one shred of blame for the acts of madmen and the failures of government,” Mr. Cox said.

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Florida special election results hint at potential Democratic wave in the midterms – ThinkProgress

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On Tuesday, Floridians in two separate districts cast their votes in the state’s final special election before the November midterms — and the results may point to a rising progressive movement in the state.

Democrats have fared well in previous special elections in the notoriously purple state that voted for President Donald Trump in 2016 — 49 percent to Hillary Clinton’s 47.8 percent.

That streak appears to have continued into Tuesday’s election, at least in south Florida.

Democrat Javier Fernandez won Florida’s 114th House District by four percentage points despite being outspent by his opponent three to one. The 114th district, located along the southeastern coast of Miami-Dade county, has flip-flopped between Republican and Democratic representation over the years. Fernandez will replace Daisy Baez, a Democrat who held the seat for just a year before resigning in October 2017 after it was revealed that she did not reside in the district she represented — a requirement under Florida law. Before Baez was elected, Republican Erik Fresen represented the 114th district for nearly eight years.

The partisan shift in the district has happened only in the last year or so, aided by a rapidly changing demographic that leans to left, in addition to a progressive push for tighter gun restrictions in the wake of the shooting in Parkland, Florida. Coral Gables, an affluent city in the 114th district, was one of the first municipalities to push for an assault weapons ban after the shooting. Because municipal governments in the state are not allowed to regulate their own gun laws according to the Florida constitution, the mayor of Coral Gables, along with a number of south Florida mayors, have sued the state, claiming the provision violates their First Amendment rights.

While Fernandez will only hold office for six months, Democrats have considered the 114th district a significant win, coming on the heels of a series of wins in small local elections.

“Tonight’s special election victory is the latest in a string of special election victories for Florida Democrats, which shows us that after nearly 20 years of failed Republican leadership, people are ready for a change,” state party chairwoman Terrie Rizzo said in a statement to The Miami Herald.

The other special election Tuesday occurred in Florida’s House District 39, which encompasses Polk and Osceola counties in central Florida — a  solidly Republican part of the state. The Republican candidate, 22-year-old Josie Tomkow, was expected to win, and she did easily, with 60 percent of the vote. The seat went plus-19 points for Trump in 2018, and Tomkow campaigned on a pro-Trump agenda, demonstrating that in Florida’s deep red districts, the president’s policies are still popular.

But elsewhere in the state, Democrats continue to rack up the wins. In September, Annette Taddeo won Florida’s Senate District 40, a Latinx-majority district with a long and confusing history of voting for Democratic presidents but Republican lawmakers. Margaret Good, a Democrat in Sarasota along the state’s west coast, flipped a Republican-held seat in a district Trump won last February. Trump won the district by five points, while Good was able to win by a margin of 7.4 points.

The @FlaDems flipped House District 72, which backed Trump by 5% but then backed Dem Margaret Good by 7 points. Good won more precincts in the district than any Dem in recent memory. Look at all the blue #flapol #sayfie pic.twitter.com/ynmAs81DjK

— Matthew Isbell (@mcimaps) February 14, 2018

Good’s win was the 36th pick-up for Democrats since Trump was elected.

There is a progressive movement growing in Florida, with the recent influx of some 300,000 mostly liberal Puerto Ricans displaced by Hurricane Maria and the possibility of former felons having their rights restored.

Some demographic experts, however, are skeptical as to whether it could actually help turn the state blue for good.

The number of Democratic candidates is double the number of Republican candidates for the highly contested race for governor, many of them advocating for a $15 minimum wage, free community college tuition, and affordable housing.

Florida’s “blue wave” is consistent with what many other purple states like Pennsylvania and Arizona are experiencing.

According to the Cook Report, 13 congressional districts have shifted to the Democrats’ favor ahead of November’s midterm elections, and there are at least 38 districts where Republicans have announced they are retiring, running for another office, or resigning outright — 12 of those are at serious risk of falling to a Democrat.

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