Do you consider Florida to be a Southern state?

Yes I feel Florida is a Southern State in the US. I am a traditionalist in my way of thinking on this (right or wrong). I still consider anything south of the Mason Dixon line “the South”.

@Forever_Free So, you refer to and think of Maryland as Southern also?

Yes. Undoubtedly.

Yes, but it gets an asterisk.

*Caution: Flordia is an especially crazy state filled with retirees from NY, lunatics and a large Latin American population. Everyone drives like a “sovereign citizen” libertarian running late to the Ayn Rand book signing séance.

^^Lol.

It’s kind of like science, it’s not whether I “consider” it so or not, it is a Southern state.

I consider it a North-Western state.
On Mondays.

Well it’s not north!
Are you meaning geographically or by the cultural make up?

Florida has its share of rednecks. Yes, it is a southern state in full.

I do because it’s not a northern state or a western state or a mid-west state, but my great-Aunt, who lived in Florida for most of her life, used to say that Florida is actually a cosmpolitan state because so many residents of Florida are from elsewhere.

Yes. First of all, it’s…wait for it…South. Like there are no other states on its southern border.
And, although lots of people retire there from other states, the majority of others are raised
in the South. The governor and most of the politicians align in their ideologies with the other southern states.

Geographically, yes. Culturally, yes. But I get the distinction.

IMO, New Hampshire is a southern state, culturally. Meanwhile the cities of Austin, Nashville, and New Orleans are more northern, culturally.

Of course, these are generalizations based on my personal experiences with each.

The northern part, at least.

If the South is a geographical-cultural region, then South Florida is ironically less “Southern” than the rest of the state.

Yes. It’s way south. It was part of “The South” during the American Civil War.

On the other hand, it’s its own kind of fruit.

There’s also ’‘The (Deep) South’’, and the ’‘Upland South’’, neither of which include Florida,

@Zaku Upland South is a new term for me! I use Deep South all the time to purposely exclude most of Florida. Parts of north Florida and the panhandle function a lot like the Deep South, but as a whole I think of FL as a “northern” state or big mixed pot anyway. I think of FL as like a mini United States of America. A ton of immigration from other countries, people from every state. Literally almost 50/50 politically if you just look at voter registration.

@JLeslie “Literally almost 50/50 politically if you just look at voter registration.”

Look who they’ve elected as governor: Jeb Bush, Charlie Crist, Rick Scott, and Ron DeSantis…

Any politician who appeals to that electorate is doomed to be unappealing to everyone else.

@gorillapaws Politically Florida winds up being more Republicans because independents vote more for Republicans and because the state is very gerrymandered, but as far as presidential and gubernatorial elections Republicans win by narrow margins and we have elected Democrats.

Looking at gubernatorial races 2018 it was 49.2% to 49.6%, 2014 47.1% to 48.1% and 2010 47.7% to 78.9%. The link also shows results for the presidential elections.

Voter registration, which I mentioned, is currently Republicans 5,120,076, Democrats 5,095,008, no Party affiliation 3,816,816.

Needless to say, if you are in Florida for a significant length of time you realize there are people with both political slants that fill the state. I have Democrat acquaintances who live here who say they think about moving because of the politics, and I know people who say they won’t move here because of the politics, but if they leave the state or won’t come here the state will keep getting voting results that are often Republicans. What good does that do? That would be like Black people not moving to white neighborhoods and then complaining no Black people live there. Do you want to to change the purple states or not? Most purple states are huge and have a ton of electoral votes.

I’ve read Florida has an average of 900 people move here every day. They are not all citizens, so they cannot all vote, but the number is mind boggling.

I’m enjoying these answers. Everyone is getting a GA from me for answering.

I do based on geography and Florida Man. :)

I consider Florida a southern state. But I don’t think of Florida as a southern state.

Like @Zaku said, it is its own kind of fruit.

Two words.
Florida Man.