Voters in Florida will head to the polls on Tuesday to select their party nominees for key state and federal elections this November. This week’s primaries mark the first elections in Florida to use the new congressional districts signed into law in May. The state’s legislature, which skews heavily Republican, redrew the congressional map this year to favour right-wing candidates.
Florida’s redistricting is part of a broader effort under President Donald Trump to give the Republican Party an advantage in November’s midterm elections, as it seeks to defend its control of Congress. But Democrats are still seeking to make inroads, despite the state’s increasing tilt towards the right. Here are the most important races — and storylines — to watch in Florida on Tuesday: A crowded field of Republicans is vying to replace the party’s term-limited Governor Ron DeSantis in Tuesday’s primary.
But recent polling indicates Congressman Byron Donalds is leading the pack, with Trump’s endorsement. If elected in November, he would be the state’s first Black governor. His competitors in the Republican gubernatorial primary include state Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins, former State House Speaker Paul Renner and controversial businessman James Fishback, who has been accused of having racist views.
DeSantis has not endorsed a would-be successor in the race. The outgoing Republican governor has served as a bellwether for Florida’s broader shift towards the right over the last decade. When DeSantis first ran for governor in 2018, Florida was considered a swing state.
He beat Democrat Andrew Gillum by less than half a percentage point that year. But in 2022, DeSantis overwhelmingly won re-election by 19 percentage points, becoming the first Republican gubernatorial candidate in 20 years to win the once Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County. During that time, Republicans came to dominate Florida’s legislature, as well as key statewide positions.
Since 2019, for instance, both of the state’s US senators have been Republicans. The party’s rapid rise has left the state’s Democrats struggling to win any major statewide races. The head of Florida’s Democratic Party, Nikki Fried, acknowledged that “the bottom fell out” for Democrats in recent years, but she and other party leaders hope to reverse the trend this November.
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