This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive the newsletter each weekday.

Florida is a state so closely divided between Democratic and Republican voters that differences in turnout levels often determine election winners.

In 2016, 81.2 percent of the state’s registered Republicans voted, according to Daniel A. Smith of the University of Florida. Only 74.4 percent of registered Democrats did so. If Democrats had voted at close to the same rate as Republicans, it would have been more than enough to erase Donald Trump’s 113,000-vote victory over Hillary Clinton in the state.

For years, Democrats have tried to win statewide races in purple states like Florida — and red states like Georgia — by nominating moderates who could woo swing voters. But now the party is trying something different. With a push from Democratic primary voters, it has adopted a strategy that the left has long urged. The party has nominated unabashed progressives for governor in both Georgia and Florida — and will try to win by inspiring left-leaning voters whose turnout has often lagged, such as younger adults and non-whites.