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Election Bolsters GOP Obamacare Strategy

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Associated Press
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Politicians and pundits continued to pontificate on Tuesday’s multimillion-dollar District 13 Congressional race, won by Republican David Jolly. The bottom line: Obamacare’s going to remain a political punching bag for the GOP.

"The Republicans might look and say, 'Wow, David Jolly spent a lot of time linking (Democrat) Alex Sink with Obamacare,'" St. Leo University political science professor Frank Orlando told WUSFNews. "It worked. He won. So, you'll be seeing lots of these sorts of attacks."

Voters who backed Jolly told the Miami Herald that the campaign’s focus on health care reform was effective. Party leaders in Washington believe the Tampa Bay area victory endorses the strategy for the critical mid-term elections, which will determine control of the House and Senate.

Democratic National Committee chairwoman, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, had a rosier view of the race that Jolly won by more than 3,000 votes. She told theSouth Florida Sun Sentinel that Republicans won by a narrow margin in a seat its party held for decades - proof that attacking the Affordable Care Act won’t work come the November elections.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.