'Civil war' breaks out in 'reddest of red states' as MAGA coalition implodes: ex-insider

A former GOP operative warned on Monday that Republicans in red state Florida have a serious problem on their hands as November approaches.

Rick Wilson, the co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, spoke with veteran politics reporter Scott MacFarlane for a Substack live video about the growing divide among the GOP as midterms approach.

"Florida is shocking people right now because a year ago, everybody thought it was the reddest of red states, that it was Alabama with better beaches," Wilson said. "And what's happened to the Republican coalition here is absolutely shocking. You've got a civil war going on on the DeSantis wing of the party. Half of the Republican Party hates Byron Donalds. Half of them wants Byron Donalds."

The split among GOP leaders comes as Democrats in the traditionally Republican-led state make gains while two Republicans face off in the gubernatorial race.

"The David Jolly campaign for governor has been running like nobody could imagine it would work," Wilson said. "Alex Vindman is moving very quickly into being one of the most financially competitive Democrats in Florida in a long time for the U.S. Senate race against Ashley Moody. You've got a bunch of great congressional candidates out there. And the MAGA coalition in Florida has really collapsed in part because in South Florida, which was a real bastion for them, Trump decided he was going to follow Stephen Miller's lead and take away TPS status for Cubans, Venezuelans, Dominicans, Haitians. And folks down there are really angry."

The question around AI data centers has garnered more division in Republican circles.

"The problem for Byron Donalds is this is his campaign money is funded by AI companies, data center builders, developers of properties that are going to be used for data centers," Wilson said. "And the super PAC that's been supporting his campaign — guys like Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel types from Silicon Valley. So Donalds is really in a hole on this."

Jolly's campaign has attacked Donalds for this, and Republican pollsters are warning this "may be the issue that kills the party in Florida because everyone hates data centers," Wilson added. "We saw Pensacola, which is Escambia County, one of the most conservative parts of the state, banned data centers. Titusville this week, very red area of the state, banned data centers."

Trump's growing unpopularity has also impacted the party.

"Although he's still more popular in Florida than a lot of other states, independent voters, who were about 60 percent of the electorate in Florida, are now about two to one against Trump, and that's starting to bleed out onto Republican candidates," Wilson said.