Editing Manatee County, Florida (section)

=== Political history ===
Manatee County is part of the strongly [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Sun Belt]]. The area became a Republican stronghold following [[World War II]] and has remained so since: the last Democrat to win Manatee County was [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in [[1944 United States presidential election|1944]].<ref name="americamag">{{cite web |url=http://www.americamagazine.org/content/unconventional-wisdom/how-red-and-blue-map-evolved-over-past-century |last1=Sullivan |first1=Robert David |title=How the red and blue map evolved over the past century |website=[[America (magazine)|America: The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture]] |date=June 29, 2016 |access-date=July 26, 2018}}</ref>

During the peak of the [[Socialist Party of America|Socialist Party]]'s prominence in the early 20th century, Manatee County would elect the only socialist to the [[Florida Legislature|state legislature]], [[Andrew Jackson Pettigrew]] to the [[Florida House of Representatives]] in 1906 for one term defeating John A. Graham (who was a Democrat) in the general election.<ref name=":0">Griffin, R. Steven; [https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/E0/01/33/96/00001/griffin_r.pdf WORKERS OF THE SUNSHINE STATE UNITE!: THE FLORIDA SOCIALIST PARTY DURING THE PROGRESSIVE ERA, 1900-1920]</ref> As a state legislator he would make several proposals that were inline with what the Party reflected at the national level such as making US Senators popularly elected and creating a national income tax. Overall as a state legislator he would make little progress in getting legislation proposed by him passed.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Paul|first=Brad|date=1999|title=Rebels of the New South: the Socialist Party in Dixie, 1892-1920.|url=https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2270&context=dissertations_1|journal=ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst|pages=129–132|via=University of Massachusetts Amherst}}</ref> Prior to the 1906 race he would run in 1904 for the same position unsuccessfully losing to A.T. Cornwell (also a Democrat) who had served as Bradenton's first mayor and in a variety of positions at the county level. Pettigrew would later go on to run for governor in [[1908 Florida gubernatorial election|1908]] and [[Florida Commissioner of Agriculture|Secretary of Agriculture]] in 1912 being unsuccessful in both races.<ref name=":0" />

In 1970, Governor [[Claude R. Kirk Jr.]] fired Manatee County's superintendent along with the entire school board and appointed himself in their place in an attempt to end [[desegregation busing]].<ref>{{Citation |title=Governor Claude Kirk presides Over School Board Meeting |date=June 19, 1970 |url=https://cdm16681.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16681coll1/id/8153 |publisher=Manatee County Public Library System |format=Photograph, JPEG |access-date=August 4, 2022}}</ref> This situation would last from April 6 to 13 before Kirk left his position as the superintendent.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sanders |first=Randy |date=Winter 2001 |title=Rassling a Governor: Defiance, Desegregation, Claude Kirk, and the Politics of Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4310&context=fhq |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |publisher=Florida Historical Society |volume=80 |issue=3 |via=STARS from the University of Central Florida}}</ref>