Party Switch: KB Mayor Davey Becomes a Democrat

In this file photo, Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey presides over a Village Council meeting, April 30, 2019. Davey, who once sought state office as a Republican, changed his party affiliation to Democratic. (Key News/Tony Winton)

Joining a trend being seen across suburban America, Mike Davey switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democratic last month. 

The Key Biscayne mayor and former GOP candidate for the Florida House of Representatives said there was just one reason: the party’s embrace of President Donald Trump.

“He represents what’s worst about America,” Davey said. “It’s all about what he can get out of the system.” 

Key Biscayne’s mayor and members of Village Council are officially nonpartisan offices, but nonetheless the people occupying those positions have separate political lives. Davey, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for House District 112 in the 2016 election, said he simply could not continue to be identified as a member of the Republican Party. 

“I’m lumped in,” he said, “and that wounds me.” 

He said party leaders’ inaction about Trump was his deciding factor. 

“What really drove me out was that no one was holding him to account,” Davey said. 

Miami-Dade County Democratic Party Chair Steve Simeonidis welcomed Davey’s switch, which he called a “good first step.” 

“It’s not surprising that a lot of Republicans want to jump a sinking ship,” he said.

Davey is hardly alone in his departure from the GOP, even in Republican-leaning Key Biscayne. 

It has been a literal island of Republican Red in a county that’s politically Democrat Blue, according to data from the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections. 

In Dec. 2008, 42%  of Key Biscayne’s registered voters were Republican, 27% were Democrats and 26%  had no party affiliation. 

By the end of 2018, after nearly a year of Trump’s presidency, the number of registered Republicans on the Key had plummeted to 33%, while the number of independents rose to 40% and the percentage of registered Democrats remained constant. 

Countywide, out of 1.4 million voters, about 42%  are Democrats, 26%  are Republican and 31% have no party affiliation. 

Nationally, Democrats have been gaining in the suburbs, particularly among college graduates, The Associated Press reported in April. 

“The revolt in these suburban districts wasn’t just about white women, it was also about white men,” said Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster advising the presidential campaign of former Gov. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. “Just as there’s been a movement of white college-educated women, there’s been a movement of white college-educated men.”

That shift is part of a long-term trend.

According to the American National Election Survey, white men without college degrees have consistently supported the GOP over the past two decades, while those with degrees — roughly one-fifth of the 2018 electorate — have increasingly moved toward Democrats. In 1996, when President Bill Clinton overwhelmingly won re-election, he only received 36%  of the votes of white male college graduates, according to ANES. Hillary Clinton lost her race in 2016 but won 43%  of them.

Back in Key Biscayne, an affluent island of 13,000, Davey said he considered being an independent but decided to register as a Democrat because he believes in the two-party system, even though he describes his basic political beliefs as being largely unchanged.

“A lot of Democrats would not consider me a member of their party,” he said, saying he rejects views of what he calls the ultra-left. He supported the impeachment of President Bill Clinton for lying under oath. 

And he feels the same way about Trump.

“I believe there is sufficient evidence to have an investigation” by the House of Representatives, he said. Davey is more vocal about impeachment than Rep. Donna Shalala, who represents the island. She flipped a longtime Republican-held congressional district to Democratic hands in November after Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen did not seek reelection. 

Davey said he made the party switch before attending one of two Democratic presidential debates in Miami because he wanted to help select a presidential nominee he could support. 

“I want to be a part of this,” he said. 

The Associated Press’ Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.