Florida can be considered a red state now, only a few years after it was often considered neutral, at best.
A new report shows that there are 1 million more registered Republican voters than there are registered Democrats in the Sunshine State, which only further cements Florida’s status as a hotbed for conservatives.
Supervisors with county election boards released new figures last weekend that showed there are 4.3 million active voters affiliated with the Democratic Party, compared to 5.3 million for the Republican Party.
There are another roughly 3.9 million voters in the state who are active but aren’t affiliated with the two major political parties, or are affiliated with another minor political party, according to the figures.
Just a few years ago, Democrats could claim Florida as an advantage, at least in terms of the number of registered voters. In 2020, for instance, liberals had an advantage of about 97,000 registered voters over the GOP.
But, things have changed in Florida — and quite quickly.
The flip of political advantage is a major win for the Republican Party in Florida, who has touted the GOP as “the most successful party in the nation,” as the state party’s chair, Evan Power, said in a statement.
In addition to former President Donald Trump calling Florida home, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is widely considered one of the most conservative governors in the country.
DeSantis won a huge 19-point re-election victory in 2022, and he even won big in some of the state’s largest traditionally liberal counties. That helped to make the state more solidly red, which is a huge concern for Democrats as the November presidential election draws nearer.
Florida used to be considered a swing state, and Democrats were hoping they would be able to return it to that status. That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, though.
Florida has 30 electoral votes, which is a major get for any presidential candidate.
Members of the Democratic Party have said that a main reason for the shift in voter registration rolls is all the new people who have moved to the state in recent years. A huge number of conservative voters moved to Florida as DeSantis became the leader of what was the resistance to pandemic-era public health measures, according to the Democrats.
The claim of an influx of residents is backed up by data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which reported that in 2020 and 2021, 667 more people per day on average moved into Florida than moved out of it. That data didn’t specify what political party those people were members of, though.
Democrats are trying to downplay the edge in voter registration that the GOP has, with the Florida Democratic Party’s chair, Nikki Fried, saying it’s just “empty rhetoric.”
As she said in a statement:
“While Florida Republicans have spent years dismantling voting rights to inflate their numbers and take victory laps on the voter registration gap, it hasn’t stopped Florida Democrats from winning elections like the Jacksonville Mayor’s race or flipping State House District 35, both wins that demonstrated a growing lack of enthusiasm for the Republican Party and an increasing number of Independent voters rejecting extremism in Florida.”
