Madison County to Officially Flip Red 'In the Next Three Months'

MADISON COUNTY, FL—Madison County is just 145 registered voters away from officially flipping Republican, pushing Florida further from its former status as a battleground state, and closer to an officially red state.

"I think a lot of it is just happening organically," Chairman of Madison County, Mike Rump, told The Floridian about the county's slow creep toward turning red. "It's been blue as far back as anybody here has lived, it's been generations. I don't know that it was ever red."

By voter registration numbers, Democrats have always had an edge in the Northwestern county, though by the turnout, the story has been all Republican for decades—with the exception of the 2008 Presidential Election, in which Obama won the county by a meager 3 percentage points.

"When we first started two years ago there was a difference of 600 voters between Democrats and Republicans," Rump said, contrasting it with today's difference of 145 voters. He discussed their county's inspiration—the neighboring Jefferson County which flipped red back in August.

"The Chairman over there, Glen Bishop, and I started to get to know each other. He said that they pulled up their list, and started calling people—they know most of them, it's not a big county!" said Rump, discussing how Madison emulated their neighbor and is "pleased" with the results.

Rump said he expects the county to officially turn red within the next three months.

The larger and historically blue Hillsborough County, meanwhile, is within one percentage point of flipping red. The county, which is home to over half a million people, is just over 8,000 voters shy of being overtaken by Republican voters.

As Republicans notch up their voter numbers leading up to the November Election, it begs citizens to remember a time just years ago when Florida was firmly considered a "battleground state". Can Democrats, in turn, continue to ramp up their own registrations in big counties like Duval and Miami-Dade?

And more importantly, can they count on their constituents to turn out to vote come election day?