Democrats didn’t see much of their only elected statewide official on the campaign trail this election cycle.
Bill Nelson was noticeably absent for Charlie Crist this year. To be sure, Nelson did Crist no good by looming over the race for so long, continuing to leave the door open to making a gubernatorial bid of his own. That kept liberal donors from opening up their wallets and funding former Republican Crist earlier in the year.
Crist needed to rally Democrats to his campaign. Based on turnout in key areas for Democrats, a lot of party members stayed home on Election Day instead of voting for an ex-Republican. Crist generally avoided talking issues and focused instead on attacking Rick Scott. But attacking Scott was not enough for some Democrats, no matter how much they disliked the governor. Crist didn’t help himself in reeling in Democratic voters by ignoring Nan Rich and dismissing calls to debate her.
In the final days of the campaign, Crist tried to tie himself to prominent Democrats. During the last week of the campaign, Crist stumped with Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. But Nelson did little to help Crist, even as he helped out other Democrats including Gwen Graham.
It’s easy to dismiss Nelson as a nonentity in Washington. But he is the only Democrat in recent years to win consistently at the state level, becoming something of an heir to Bob Graham and old rival Lawton Chiles who could win elections year after year.
Nelson might not have as distinct a political personality as Graham and Chiles ever had but he has been a remarkably successful politician, the only Florida Democrat still standing even as Republicans won every other statewide office. But Nelson did next to nothing for Crist and even kept his name in the mix for way too long.
The question is, where does Nelson go from here and will Democrats use him more on the campaign trail in 2016. Nelson missed his chance to chair a major committee, at least for two years, as Democrats lost the Senate on Tuesday. Nelson could run for a fourth term in 2018 but he’ll be 76 then and plenty of senators retire around that age.
In the meantime, Florida looks like it will be a battleground state yet again in 2016. Nelson might not play a major role in the Senate race that year but Hillary Clinton, or whoever the Democratic nominee is, should be sure to call on his help come 2016. That’s at least one lesson Democrats should learn from Charlie Crist’s loss.
Tallahassee political writer Jeff Henderson wrote this analysis exclusively for Sunshine State News.
