WEST PALM BEACH, FL – Florida has 1 million more registered Republican voters than Democrats, election officials revealed, further cementing its status as a conservative center.
There are 5.3 million active Republican voters, compared to 4.3 million active Democratic voters, according to numbers released by county elections supervisors this weekend. Around 3.9 million voters are not affiliated with any political party or minor parties.
The change in the state’s political landscape is unusual because of how quickly it has become so conservative. In 2020, Democrats held a voter registration advantage of about 97,000 votes over Republicans. Since then, there has been a rapid increase in the number of registered Republican voters.
Having such a large advantage in voter registration is a victory for the Florida Republican Party, which has praised it as “the most successful party in the country,” according to a statement from Evan Power, chairman of the Florida Republican Party.
But it’s bad news for the state’s Democratic Party, which has already suffered massive losses in 2022 with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 19-point re-election win, which helped a statewide reddening of traditionally blue counties and elections. locations. In the run-up to November’s general election, Democrats clung to hopes that Florida would return to its reputation as a swing state.
Democrats often point to demographic changes in Florida being one of the reasons for the advantage in voter registration, since a large influx of voters arrived in the state when DeSantis has emerged as a leader of the Republican resistance to pandemic public health policies. The US Census Bureau estimated an average of about 667 more people moved to the state than moved out every day between 2020 and 2021, but did not specify their political party.
A Republican-backed law also took effect last year that cracked down on third-party voter registration organizations that mobilized minority and college-age voters, who tend to vote Democratic. The law, in part, increased fines for violations, such as turning in paperwork to the wrong county or hiring a noncitizen volunteer, from $1,000 to $250,000, and shortened the time groups can return registration applications from 14 for 10 days.
Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, called the voter registration advantage “empty rhetoric.”
“Although Florida Republicans have spent years dismantling voting rights to inflate their numbers and make gains in the voter registration gap, that hasn’t stopped Florida Democrats from winning elections like the Jacksonville mayor’s race or flipping Florida District 35. State House, both victories that demonstrated a growing lack of enthusiasm for the Republican Party and a growing number of independent voters who reject extremism in Florida,” she said in a statement.
Fried noted that since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the presidential race, the state has seen an influx of 18,000 volunteers who have signed up with the Florida Democratic Party, which she called a “huge shift in momentum.”
Florida voters will also vote on constitutional amendments, including one to protect the right to abortion and another to legalize marijuana in November. Democrats expressed great hopes of victory in these causes, which are widely supported by their party. Researchers and political strategists – even across party lines – have signaled that these amendments put the state back into playsince abortion referenda benefited Democrats in other states.
