Sen. Bill Nelson Flips On Gay Marriage: Was He Pressured To Do So?

As Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., flips his position on gay marriage, he joins the ranks of over 80 percent of his caucus that supports same-sex marriage. Ironically, Bill Nelson's flip may have come from similar actions of another senator on the other side of the aisle. Recently, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, flipped his viewpoint on gay marriage after his son revealed he was a homosexual, saying he did so because he could not see denying his son or anybody like him the Constitutionally protected "pursuit of happiness" as Portman explained.

Sen. Bill Nelson's explanation for his flip-flop on the issue was very similar to Portman's.

"If we are 'endowed by our Creator' with rights, then why shouldn't those be attainable by gays and lesbians?" Nelson asked rhetorically in a statement to a Tampa, Fla. newspaper.

Sen. Bill Nelson, a longtime Democrat senator in the perennial battleground state of Florida has some guessing the move was purely political. After narrowly voting for Barack Obama in 2012, a look at Florida reveals a tale of two states. Unlike most of the South, where the farther south one goes, the more conservative the area gets: overwhelmingly liberal Fairfax, Va. eventually transitions into Right-To-Work South Carolina, Florida is seemingly the opposite.

With many of the southern and Everglades counties such as Broward and Dade reliably voting democrat, most of the panhandle's ideology represents that of the surrounding red states of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Nelson may feel safe switching to a view welcomed by those in his state's southern half, while treading carefully with his northern constituency. Some of Nelson's democrat counterparts who have flipped on the issue in recent months include many whose vote for gay marriage has the possibility of angering much of their state's voters.

Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., who identifies himself as Catholic, may be a liberal when it comes to economic policies such as federal spending, voting for a number of the so-called 'stimulus' referendums and bailouts, but he has reliably shown support for both the rights of the unborn and the existence of traditional marriage. However, the son of a late governor of what is, outside of Allegheny, Lackawanna and Philadelphia counties a majority socially conservative commonwealth, Casey Jr. decided that now was the time to go against much of his constituency, similar to Bill Nelson, and throw his support behind gay marriage.

Bill Nelson's flip also echoes the ideological somersaults of Mark Begich of Alaska, John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, and Mark Warner of Virginia, all mildly safe Democrats in red or 'pink' states. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., also changed his mind on the issue, but Delaware's social issue status is seen as much of a conundrum and many say it's not truly a red state; it often doesn't vote Republican. Democrat-heavy densely populated New Castle County, home to the city of Wilmington seems to reliably outweigh its more rural and traditional counterparts in Kent (Dover), and Sussex (the beaches). But, some may see the prevalence of a number of Democrat campaign signs in the yards of folks in rural villages like Port Penn in recent elections as adding to the confusion over The First State's true identity.

Nonetheless, Bill Nelson's flip is his official departure from a minority of six Democrats who still support traditional marriage, including Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., who represent overwhelmingly conservative constituencies.