Thread by @PeterSchorschFL

To me, this is one of the most interesting singular pieces of data about the presidential race in Florida.

@RealDonaldTrump, perhaps surprisingly, won purplish Pinellas by 1% in 2016, so this represents a FOURTEEN POINT swing away from him.

https://twitter.com/Fla_Pol/status/1317820542599266307

@realDonaldTrump What you should understand is that Pinellas' population and demographics are extrordinarily stable, esp. when compared to other counties in Florida.

The voters who voted in 2016 are the people who are being polled now.

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@realDonaldTrump Pinellas is as bipartisan as it gets: A GOP U.S. Rep in the northern part of the county, a Democrat in the south part. GOP slightly dominates legislative delegation, but biggest city is led by a Democrat. County Commission is 4-3 Democrat, but countywide officials are Republican.

@realDonaldTrump Pinellas - and St. Pete - in particular have responded to the pandemic as smartly as any local gov’ts have.

Ordinances and lots of social pressure to wear masks. But we also opened our beaches on Memorial Day Weekend.

School sup’t Mike Grego is widely respected.

@realDonaldTrump Pinellas, as many know, is also home to so many nursing homes, LTC facilities, ALFs. If the #coronavirus had raged here, it would have meant a lot of deaths.

So, by and large, Pinellas residents have taken pandemic very serious.

@realDonaldTrump I have to point out this is a media-savvy, if not saturdated market. Beloved newspaper (@TB_Times), a strong alt-weekly, lots of blogs, local sites, &, of course, a competitive, strong TV news market, incl. a 24-hour news channel (@BN9).

Folks had access to LOTS of information.

@realDonaldTrump @TB_Times @BN9 To wit: it is @RealDonaldTrump’s response to the pandemic that is driving his poor numbers in Pinellas County, a community that took it as serious as any in Florida.

The deficit Trump is seeing w/ older White voters throughout Florida is acutely true in older White Pinellas.