GOP-dominated Florida town votes to keep the name Gulf of Mexico Drive

Of the hundreds of towns that crowd Florida’s coastline bordering the broad blue sea between America and Mexico, only one has a street named Gulf of Mexico Drive.

For 68 years, the main road through the small island town of Longboat Key on Florida’s Gulf Coast has used that name — GMD to the locals.

And despite the preferences of the president of the United States and the governor of Florida, the locals want to keep it that way.

After hearing from hundreds of residents who objected to changing the name of the 10-mile-long road to Gulf of America Drive, Longboat Key town commissioners voted Monday to keep the name as is.

“Some of the folks have lived here for 40, 50 years and, and it’s just the tradition of it’s always being that way,” town manager Howard Tipton said. “Another reason is that it’s a bit of a hassle to go and change your driver’s license and all the other things you have to change.”

Gulf of Mexico Drive is the address for more than 5,100 people and businesses.

Tipton said many of the town’s 7,400 residents are still recovering from a trio of hurricanes last year that damaged the island, including Hurricane Helene, which sent a five-foot storm surge into homes and businesses.

“For a small community, it was a lot. We still have a lot of people that aren’t in their places, or their places are gone,” Tipton said. “A lot of what we heard was that this was just going to be one more thing on top of a whole bunch of other stuff they’re trying to deal with.”

Longboat Key is an affluent town — the median home value is $1.2 million, the median household income is $140,000, and the median age is 71. It’s also conservative, with nearly twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats. But town leaders said of the almost 500 letters and messages from town residents on the name change, 83% were opposed to it.

The name Gulf of Mexico has been in place since the 1550s, and is derived from the term Mexica, which is the Nahuatl name for the Aztecs. It has become another flash point in President Donald Trump’s second administration, leaving many business owners and towns perplexed over the best way to address the name change.

Trump said shortly after his election last year that he wanted to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America, what a beautiful name and it’s appropriate.” He signed an executive order on the name change his first day in office Jan. 20.

Florida lawmakers quickly followed Trump’s lead and passed legislation that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law in April to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America “across Florida Statutes and state government.”

“On January 20th, 2025, the body of water along Florida’s west coast became the Gulf of America — that is a fact,” Florida State Sen. Joe Gruters said at the time. “These bills, now Florida law, ensure we reflect that fact across state government and, most importantly, in our schools. It is our responsibility to ensure our children understand American greatness.”

The law directs state agencies to “update geographical materials” to show the change, and also says that school instructional and library materials purchased after July 1 use Gulf of America.

The Florida Department of Transportation removed six Gulf of Mexico street signs on Longboat Key in August, but did not put up new ones. The official name of the state-owned road is SR 789.

FDOT officials did not return requests for comment.

Some of the supporters of the name change said those who objected had “Trump derangement syndrome.”

“Many among us simply hate America. It’s real,” said Fred Lugano, who lives on GMD. He was booed by the standing-room-only crowd in the commission chambers. “We should not bow to their self-loathing.”

George Reenstra said he “kicked the hornet’s nest” to get the name changed by writing letters to the town, the local newspaper, and also to Trump and DeSantis.

“We need to make certain the new name is GULF OF AMERICA DRIVE,” Reenstra wrote to DeSantis.

He invited Trump to the ribbon-cutting ceremony if the new signs go up.

“I don’t believe that this is hating America,” Reenstra, a Vietnam veteran, said in an interview about the people who oppose the change. “But you know what my feeling is? Let’s show our country a little extra love, you know?”

He dismissed what several residents at the meeting said would be a burden to change their addresses on a number of forms, including getting a new driver’s license and voter registration card.

“A lot of them were like, well, I would have to get a new checkbook. To which myself and a couple of us who were veterans stood up. I spent a year in combat. My friend was in Iraq for two years. We know what it’s like to be inconvenienced,” Reenstra said. “So you have to change the address on your checks? Give me a break.”

But town commissioners said many more people objected to the name change than supported it, and because the state didn’t mandate a change, they would “take the path of least resistance,” and continue to call their main road Gulf of Mexico Drive.

Commissioner B.J. Bishop, whose home was damaged in Hurricane Helene, said at the meeting that the ongoing problems with recovery from the storm make any added layers of bureaucracy in changing an address even more stressful.

“My husband and I lost our home in the hurricane over 12 months ago. We are still homeless today, living in a one-bedroom apartment over a garage,” Bishop said at the meeting. “But I am here talking about a name change on the road.”

She said she and her neighbors and family are still suffering from “tremendous angst and pain.”

“For the individuals who walked into this room and used the word hate America, I have spent my life as a public servant,” Bishop said. “I don’t talk today about what we hate and don’t hate. We happen to be devoted to this community at the highest level.”