Red wave hits Florida: GOP continues to stretch lead over Democrats in registered voters

The "purple state" label that has been attached to Florida since 1992 began to peel off in 2022, when Republicans won very comfortable margins in the midterm elections. Ron DeSantis beat Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points in the gubernatorial race, Marco Rubio pulled out a 16-point lead over Val Demings in the election for the Senate, and the GOP managed to flip four seats in the House of Representatives, in addition to holding all elected offices in The Sunshine State.

According to the latest data from the Florida Department of State, Republicans outnumber Democrats by 472,780 voters in the state. "Every month, every day and every second it becomes clearer that Democrats are failing miserably at attracting new voters in our state. Floridians are not buying the superficial virtuosity that the left is promoting, and we have the proof to prove it," celebrated Christian Ziegler, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.

At the same time, he warned that they cannot be complacent and celebrate the numbers, but they need to work to further expand the voter gap. "Momentum is on our side, but we cannot be complacent and the job is not finished. We will continue to work tirelessly until there are no Democrats left in Florida," he added in a statement.

The transition to a red state

Prior to the 2010 midterm elections, marked by the emergence of the Tea Party and a historic defeat of Barack Obama's Democratic Party in the House of Representatives, Democrats held a lead of approximately 568,000 registered voters in Florida. Two years later, the party now led by Joe Biden won its last presidential election in Florida.

The change did not happen in one day. It began to take shape very slowly during the following years. The migration of voters to the Republican Party began to gain serious momentum in 2016, and by 2021, Republicans officially outnumbered Democrats in the state. At that time, Politico informed its readers that "Florida is now officially a red state."

Since then, the gap began to widen. By mid-2022, for every citizen registering as a Democrat in Florida, the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) had nine new members.

The aforementioned statewide figures further complicate the Democrats' aspirations in the state, at least for the upcoming elections. With Naomi Blemur's defeat in the 2022 election for agriculture commissioner, the GOP went on to control all elected offices in the state.

In addition, its presence in the local legislature is also somewhat diminished. They have 12 senators out of 40, and 35 congressmen out of 120. At the federal level, both of Florida's senators are Republicans, and in the House of Representatives, Democrats hold just 8 out of 20 of the state's current seats.