DC Draino: Hillsborough County will flip red, get GOP leadership in next decade

TAMPA, Fla. – Conservative commentator Rogan O’Handley, more commonly known as DC Draino, argued that Hillsborough County will soon flip Republican by voter registration, and will also gain new GOP representation at the local and federal level.

“Hillsborough County, we are almost at the point of flipping red,” he told Florida’s Voice at the Florida Young Republicans’ 2024 State Convention. “I believe we’ll have a Republican mayor and a Republican congressperson within the next five to 10 years.”

He credited the wave of Republican success in the state to the conservative lawmakers across the state, naming Reps. Matt Gaetz, Anna Paulina Luna and Byron Donalds.

Republicans in Hillsborough County currently trail Democrats around 9,000 registered voters in the area.

O’Handley explained that the county commission has “already flipped red” and the “rope is tightening” on the “one blue dot in all of western Florida.”

He also talked about the recent conservative success of Luna in Congress.

The representative filed legislation on Thursday that would allow for the death penalty for child predators, similar to a law signed in Florida by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

O’Handley argued that the bill is something that “nobody should oppose.”

“If you go after our most vulnerable in such a horrific way, you should be put to death if convicted,” he said.

Additionally, Luna spoke out and voted against the reauthorization of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that can be utilized to “infringe on our privacy rights” by conducting “warrantless searches on Americans.”

The bill ultimately passed by one vote, but O’Handley explained how Luna has issued a little used parliamentary procedure that would force a revote on the legislation – this time, with the hopes of blocking its passage thanks to the return of a Republican lawmaker who was absent during the original vote.

Being at the state convention, O’Handley described the young Republican movement as “optimistic.”

“I remember I showed up to the Tampa Bay Young Republicans about five years ago, there was maybe 30 people,” he said. “Now they have sometimes over 300 people per meeting. There are articles saying that Tampa is a young Republicans paradise.”