Hispanic Republican rising star Marco Rubio swept the moderate Governor Charlie Crist and a negligible Democratic opponent in the 2010 Florida Senate election by double digits. This surprising upset followed Rubio's surge ahead of the GOP incumbent governor by the same set of double digits. The previous governor, after a warm hug with President Obama and support for the wasted stimulus package, signaled to voters that he was not the right man on the Right to represent Floridians in Congress.
The Sunshine state has also repudiated gay marriage by constitutional amendment with a two-thirds vote. President Barack Obama shifted Florida into the Democratic camp in 2008 following a grow economic crisis. Now that he has shifted his support toward gay marriage, he is pushing the South, including an alleged swing state, back into the Republican column.
Florida, without a doubt, will be a tough sell for the Democratic party operatives in the state, who were hoping to capitalize on the failing housing market as a certain attack against a wealthy corporate magnate from Massachusetts. After three years of failed economic policies, including a stimulus that failed to stimulate and an medical insurance mandate which has garnered nothing but demands for its repeal, the state of Florida is certain to become a stalwart support of conservative economic and social positions for years to come.