Poll: Half of Miami-Dade voters fear retaliation for sharing their political views in public

Political polarization and activism have grown so acute in recent years that half of Miami-Dade voters believe sharing their political views online and in public could draw unwanted retaliation, new polling shows.

Forty percent of county voters said they feel confident they can voice their opinions without fear. But 50% think otherwise, and 10% said they either don’t know or declined to answer the question.

Among Republicans, 37% said they no longer can speak freely without risking reprisal, compared to 53% of Democrats and 63% of third- and no-party voters who said they feel similarly constrained.

Miami-based Bendixen & Amandi International^[1] surveyed 600 registered Miami-Dade voters by phone and online Sept. 30-Oct. 3. Pollsters weighted results to reflect the demographic and political composition of the county’s registered voter population.

The poll had a 4-percentage point margin of error at the 95% confidence level. Twenty-eight percent of respondents were under 40, while 25% were 65 or older.

Its findings come less than a month after the assassination^[2] of Charlie Kirk at a Utah university. After that tragedy, Republican officials, influencers and organizations went on a cancellation^[3] spree^[4] targeting public and private employees they viewed as making light of or celebrating the conservative activist’s death.

National headlines ran about personalities like talk show host Jimmy Kimmel and MSNBC analyst Matthew Dowd being pulled off^[5] the air^[6] for their comments (Kimmel has since been reinstated).

Numerous Floridians have similarly faced firing or calls for removal.

Palmetto Bay Council member Steve Cody, drew bipartisan ire^[7] and demand for his removal or resignation over a crass Facebook post in which he called Kirk’s murder as a “fitting sacrifice to our Lords: Smith & Wesson.” So far, he has refused to step down.

Karen Leader, a tenured art history professor at Florida Atlantic University, was placed on administrative leave^[8] after she posted multiple posts on X calling Kirk “racist, transphobic, homophobic and more.”

Instructors working for several postsecondary institutions and public school districts in Florida have also been removed or face investigations^[9] for their social media comments about Kirk.

Other commentary has also triggered backlash. Last week, bipartisan calls mounted^[10] for Palm Bay City Council member Chandler Langevin’s ouster after he shared a spate of xenophobic comments about Indian Americans on X.

Langevin said his comments, which included assertions that “there is not a single Indian that cares about the United States” and that “Indians are destroying the South,” are “Pro-American^[11].” And like Cody, he has refused to leave office of his own accord.

Other notable rebukes or removals in Florida included the repeat termination^[12] of a Palm Beach County high school principal who refused in 2019 to acknowledge the Holocaust as a “factual” event, calls the same year for former Republican Rep. Mike Hill to resign after he laughed at a suggestion to execute gay people^[13], and the April 2017 resignation of former Republican Sen. Frank Artiles, who stepped down after using a racial slur^[14].

Over the past decade, efforts to punish public figures have come from both sides of the political aisle, though many high-profile ones originated among progressives, including the 2020 boycott of Goya^[15] after the company’s CEO praised Donald Trump, Saturday Night Live’s 2019 firing of comedian Shane Gillis over racial slurs he used on a podcast, comedian Kevin Hart’s resignation as an Oscars host in 2018 amid outcry over his homophobic X posts and former Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken’s resignation earlier that year amid misconduct allegations.

Franken later said he regretted leaving office^[16] voluntarily.

Last week, bipartisan calls mounted^[17] for Palm Bay City Council member Chandler Langevin’s ouster after he shared a spate of xenophobic comments about Indian Americans on X. He called his comments, which included assertions that “there is not a single Indian that cares about the United States” and that “Indians are destroying the South,” as “Pro-American^[18].” And like Cody, he’s refused to leave office of his own accord.