Gov. Ron DeSantis is fond of saying “Florida is where woke goes to die.” Someone should tell him about another saying: “Florida is where presidential campaigns go to die.”
Once-promising politicians have found that trying to move to the White House brought nothing but failure.
Even President Trump has experienced Florida’s Presidential Curse. He was President of the United States until he moved to Florida in 2019. Then, he lost in 2020.
Ulysses S. Grant was out of the White House when he came to Florida looking for delegate support in 1880. His visit received widespread press coverage — Harper’s Weekly even sent an artist to sketch his stops. In Sanford, he took part in the groundbreaking for a railroad linking Sanford and Orlando. Months later, he lost the nomination for a third term.
Florida’s first brush with a president came in 1883 when President Chester A. Arthur came to Kissimmee. He billed it as a vacation to go fishing, but he was still considering whether to run in 1884 and wanted delegate support. After visiting Florida, he decided not to run.
President Grover Cleveland came in 1888, campaigning for his second term. He lost, but he is notable for his visit to Winter Park, where he had a serious carriage accident on the road between Winter Park and Maitland and became the first person to publicly criticize the road, which remains a nightmare for thousands of drivers each day.
The first Floridian to run for president was Albert A. Murphree, the president of the University of Florida, although it is not clear if he ever wanted to be a candidate. Three-time Democratic loser William Jennings Bryan moved to Florida and, in 1916, spoke at the university. He was impressed with Murphree and began pushing him for the Democratic presidential nomination. Bryan nominated Murphree at the Democratic convention, although Murphree admitted that there was no way the party would nominate a “Florida man.”
In 1948, Sen. Claude Pepper launched the shortest presidential campaign in history. At the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, he announced that he was challenging Harry Truman for the nomination. A day later, he withdrew. Not only did he fail to win the presidential nomination, two years later, he lost his Senate seat.
In 1966, Claude Kirk became the first Florida Republican governor since Reconstruction and immediately began promoting himself for national office. He was great at gathering publicity and thought he could be Richard Nixon’s 1968 running mate. He was passed over, but he kept trying, later running for president and vice president.
He even ran for president as a Democrat in 1984. Also running that year was former Gov. Reubin Askew. Kirk went nowhere. Askew finished sixth in the Iowa caucus with 2.5 percent of the vote. His campaign was finished without a single delegate.
Sen. Bob Graham ran in 2004 but gained little traction and dropped out before the first Democratic primary. He was mentioned in several elections as a vice-presidential nominee but was never selected.
In 2016, Floridians were lining up to be the Republican nominee. There was Sen. Marco Rubio; surgeon Ben Carson (a native of Maryland who lived in Palm Beach); former Gov. Jeb Bush; and Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor who lived in Santa Rosa Beach.
Bush was considered the front-runner, the son of one president and brother of another. None of them foresaw the candidacy of Donald Trump. He nicknamed Bush “low-energy Jeb Bush,” and branded Rubio “Li’l Marco.” The nicknames stuck and hurt both candidates.
Florida’s only contribution to national politics is the creation of the primary system. In 1904, the Florida Legislature passed a bill creating the first primary, but it was optional, and no primary was held that year. Wisconsin followed the Florida lead and actually held the first presidential primary.
Florida got around to holding its first primary eight years later, but the Democratic Party fixed the results. The party wanted Oscar Underwood to get the nomination, and removed his two major competitors. That left Underwood to face New Jersey Gov. Woodrow Wilson.
Wilson came to Florida to campaign, but lost to Underwood. Wilson won the nomination and the presidency.
This time around, two Florida candidates figure to be at center stage, battling each other and the Florida Presidential Curse.
James C. Clark is a senior lecture in the UCF history department.