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Trump supporters who voted for $15 minimum wage? Yes, it happened in Florida | Rangel

Isadora Rangel
Florida Today

In the midst of a red wave that swept Florida, with President Trump expanding his margin of victory and Republicans picking up congressional seats, voters also passed a quintessentially progressive proposal to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2026.

Floridians aren't unfamiliar to strange election results but I'll admit this one left me scratching my head. Until I learned a bit more. 

Amendment 2 won more votes than Biden and Trump, putting it just .81% over the 60% threshold needed for approval of constitutional amendments. Let's look at these numbers as of Tuesday afternoon:

Amendment 2: 6,377,937 votes

Trump: 5,658,219

Biden: 5,283,367

More:Amendment 2: What we know about the minimum wage amendment that Floridians passed

This means that not only is raising the minimum wage more popular than either presidential candidate, but also that some Trump supporters most likely voted for something that's perceived to be a Democratic priority.

If this blows your mind, keep reading because I think this actually makes sense. 

We like to think of voters as single-minded, aligning 100% with the principles of party they vote for. We often fail to understand how nuanced their views can be. I learned that lesson when I started Civility Brevard and heard opinions from voters across the political spectrum. And I call it a spectrum because, with some exceptions, many voters might lean left or right depending on the issue. 

At RIverside Baptist Church in Indialantic Thomas Jefferson spent most of the day  on a bullhorn saying "four more years" and chiding Biden voters.

Florida's support for a mandated $15 minimum wage and for Trump might also explain how the president's appeal extends beyond the traditional GOP base. After all, he won in 2016 on a platform that balked at his party's free-market philosophy when he railed against globalization. That platform was especially appealing to working-class voters who once voted Democratic and might benefit from Amendment 2. 

"The coalition of Republicans has changed because of Trump and those Trump Republicans are more sympathetic to working-class people, where historically the GOP has been known as the country club party," said Eric Hoppenbrouwer, executive director of Business Voice PAC and who opposed Amendment 2. 

Perhaps Trump supporters are not just staunch conservatives afraid of "big government" ideas, but voters who are OK with the state telling businesses they should pay their workers a livable wage or with the government establishing a bigger role, say, in international trade by imposing tariffs and protecting manufacturing. 

And there's evidence to support that. An analysis of 2016 voters by Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the think tank New America, found that while supporters of Hillary Clinton and Trump were "very polarized on identity and moral issues," their views on economic issues were "more of a mix" — many Trump supporters were conservative on social issues but more economically liberal.

Perhaps that also explains why minimum wage increases have succeed in Arkansas and Missouri, both red states, and Oregon, a blue state. Raising the minimum wage might be one those ballot issues that unite both sides of the aisle like legalizing recreational marijuana, which just passed in deep-red South Dakota. In 2016, Florida voters approved the use of medical marijuana while also electing Trump.

These referendums give voters the impression they are doing something that will benefit society and themselves, Chris Muro, a political science professor at Eastern Florida State College, told me. (Muro opposed Amendment 2).

"I think they are voting more for themselves because they think they are doing good for society and the downtrodden, and to help the less fortunate in society is to vote to get an increase in the minimum wage," Muro said.

All punditry aside, in the end it looks like voters decided that what we pay low-wage workers simply isn't enough. A livable wage for a household with two working adults and two children would be $16.14 per hour for Florida as a whole and $15.57 in Brevard County, according to the Living Wage Calculator by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Florida's current minimum wage is $8.56, though only 2% of workers earn only that. The Legislature has refused to raise it.

What remains to be seen is the impact of a $15 minimum wage on small businesses and whether fears of layoffs and hours being cut materializes. 

During a pandemic when service workers and first responders were forced to return to work and put themselves at risk, voters — whether they are for Trump or Biden — might have found common ground on at least this one topic. 

Isadora Rangel is FLORIDA TODAY's public affairs and engagement editor and a member of the Editorial Board. Her columns reflect her opinion. Support her work by subscribing to FLORIDA TODAY. Readers may reach her at irangel@floridatoday.com.