Wakulla County now has more registered Republican voters than Democrats. Its local Supervisor of Elections says the County has historically been majority Democrat.
Buddy Wells became Wakulla’s elections supervisor in 2009. But he says it wasn’t until the last presidential election that he saw the shift take place.
“This change started in ’16, is when we noticed that the switch has started going,” Wells said. “And it’s been climbing from there.”
County Commissioner and chairman of the Wakulla Republican Party Ralph Thomas claims this is the first time in recent history Republicans have outnumbered Democrats locally. He says for years, registered voters tipped about 60 percent Democrat to Republicans’ 40. Thomas credits what he calls the party’s “traditional values” for bringing in voters.
“They believe in small government, personal responsibility, accountability. And most Republicans that I know believe the role of government is small and limited,” Thomas said. “And the best thing we can do is kind of keep government out of the way.”
The county has more than 20,500 registered voters. More than 3,500 of those are registered as other, or no party affiliation.
Contact reporter Ryan Dailey at rdailey@fsu.edu or follow on Twitter @RT_Dailey
