MIAMI — When Miami-Dade County helped elect President Trump in November, effectively taking on a conservative bent after nearly three decades of being solid blue, political operatives here had their worst fears realized: Florida was in fact a red state.

The signs of a big political change in southern Florida had been seen for several cycles, including Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) 2022 win, when he flipped the metropolitan county for the first time in more than 20 years.

“There is nothing more maddening to me than the self-inflicted wounds in Dade,” said Democratic strategist Steve Schale, who is based in Florida and ran former President Obama’s 2008 operation in the state. “Too many in my party — particularly those outside of Florida — thought the Obama '12 and [Hillary] Clinton '16 numbers in Miami were signs the county had become a progressive bastion.”

“But we are talking about a place where most people came here to escape socialist authoritarian governments and crime — so when people on the extreme left tried to justify things like ‘Democratic socialism,’ imagine how that sounds to the ears of a family that left everything behind — or a family who came here seeking safety to hear things like ‘defund the police,’ Schale added.

Another longtime Democratic operative in Florida said losing Miami-Dade was a “gut punch” for Democrats.

“We could see the trainwreck coming before the crash happened, but that was a particularly painful moment for any Democrat who cares about this state,” the operative said.

Florida Democrats see their problems in Florida as the result of years of neglect following Obama’s win in 2012. But they say they haven’t given up on trying to move the Sunshine State back into purple state territory. In fact, they say, they’re doubling down on their efforts.

“We’re still rebuilding, but we’ve had a lot of success,” said Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, in an interview with The Hill.

Fried pointed to an 8 percent........

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