In solid red Collier County, Democrats are a sparse entity. That hasn’t deterred them from organizing. And now for the first time in a long time the Democrats have a place to call their own and maybe grow the party. 

 The last time the Democratic nominee for the U.S. presidency won a majority of Collier County voters was 1952.  

For local races, it’s not quite so bad for Democrats — but it’s still bad. It was 1980 the last time a Democrat won a seat on the board of county commissioners.  
 
The once bright blue county had indeed shifted to a deep shade of red.  Local Democrats like Paul Stephens understand this: "The last Democrat that held the seat in Collier was the mosquito control Commissioner, and that was quite a while ago."  

Collier County has 50,000 people registered as Democrats. Add in the 59,000 Non-Party Affiliated voters and Republicans still have a resounding hold with over 144,000 voters registered as Republicans. 

Undeterred, the Democrats have pushed on this last year, hosting rallies and meet and greets. At times they are drawing large crowds, sometimes in the thousands.   

"And what started happening is people would come and they said, ‘Oh, I thought there was only a couple of us in this neighborhood,’” Stephens said.  
 
And now Democrats have their very own space to conduct business near Pine Ridge and U.S. 41/Tamiami Trail.  Stephens said they are feeling so confident, the party signed a five-year lease.  
 
"We want to show them that if you're afraid to talk about your viewpoints in your neighborhood or anywhere else you can come here," he said.  

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