How the Grove Voted on Tuesday

Grove voters charted their own course this week when deciding whether to roll back Florida’s six-week abortion ban and allow the recreational use of marijuana.

If Coconut Grove ran the world, the political landscape in Miami, Tallahassee and Washington D.C. would look very different this week.

Kamala Harris would be headed to the White House. Rick Scott would be facing retirement. Florida’s six-week abortion ban would be toast, and adults statewide would be getting toasted, just for the fun of it, without looking over their shoulders.

Obviously, that’s not how the election played out. But Coconut Grove voters went their own way on Tuesday when choosing candidates and deciding ballot issues.

Here’s a look at how Grove voters marked their ballots, based on vote tabulations at 10 Coconut Grove election precincts, compared with the overall election results:

62% of Grove residents chose Kamala Harris for president. Trump won 36% of the vote. The remaining 2% was split among the alternatives, including write-in candidates. (Trump won statewide in Florida with 56% of the vote.)

The same percentage of Grove voters (62%) preferred Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, to incumbent Rick Scott. (Scott won reelection with 56% of the vote statewide.)

60% of Grove voters were ready to send challenger Lucia Baez-Geller to Congress to represent Florida’s 27^th District. Republican incumbent Maria Elvira Salazar flipped the outcome by winning 60% of the district-wide vote.

Grove voters also preferred Cindy Lerner over incumbent Raquel Regalado for the Miami-Dade District 7 commission seat. Lerner won 58 percent of the Grove vote. Regalado won reelection by capturing 57% of the district-wide vote.

On the question of abortion, 78% of Grove residents voted to replace Florida’s six-week abortion ban with a constitutional provision protecting a woman’s right to choose. The measure was supported by 57% of voters statewide but failed after falling short of the 60% needed for passage.

Two-thirds of Grove voters (66%) voted to decriminalize the recreational use of marijuana by adults. The measure was supported by 56% of voters statewide but fell short of the 60% needed for passage.

A majority of Grove voters supported the two Democratic challengers in Florida House District 113 and 114 – Jackie Gross-Kellogg (113) won 56% of the vote, while Matthew Bornstein (114) won 62%. Both incumbents – Vicki Lopez (R-113) and Demi Busatta Cabrera (R-114) – won reelection with 55% and 58% of the district-wide vote, respectively.

Finally, Grove voters did align with their Miami neighbors in supporting two controversial proposals for the development of Watson Island.

A slim majority of Grove voters (51%) supported a proposal to replace Parrot Jungle with two residential towers and a public park, while 55% supported a proposal for a mixed-use development on the south side of the island facing downtown.

Both proposals were approved by a majority of Miami voters.