WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Election officials revealed that Florida has 1 million more registered Republican voters than Democratic voters, further cementing the state’s status as a conservative hotbed.
There are 5.3 million active Republican voters compared with 4.3 million active Democratic voters, according to figures released this weekend by county election supervisors. About 3.9 million voters have no political party affiliation or are affiliated with minor parties.
The state’s changing political landscape is unusual in how quickly it became so conservative. In 2020, Democrats held a lead of about 97,000 registered votes over Republicans. Since then, there has been a rapid increase in registered Republican voters.
The fact that the Republican Party of Florida has such a large lead in voter registration is a victory for the Republican Party of Florida, which touted the party as “the most successful party in the country,” according to a statement from Evan Power, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
But it’s bad news for the state’s Democratic Party, which already suffered huge losses in 2022 when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 19-point re-election victory helped fuel a statewide rout in traditionally blue counties and local elections. In the run-up to November’s general election, Democrats are clinging to the hope that Florida can return to its reputation as a swing state.
Democrats often point out demographic shifts in florida one reason for the lead in voter registration, as there was a large influx of voters into the state when DeSantis emerged as a leader of the GOP resistance to public health policies related to the pandemic. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that an average of 667 more people moved to the state than left between 2020 and 2021, but it did not specify their political party.
Last year, a Republican-backed law also went into effect that cracked down on third-party voter registration groups that recruited minorities and students, who tend to vote Democratic. The law partly increased fines for violations, such as filing paperwork with the wrong county or hiring a noncitizen volunteer, from $1,000 to $250,000, and shortened the time the groups have to submit registration applications from 14 days to 10 days.
Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, called the voter registration boost “empty rhetoric.”
“While Florida Republicans have spent years dismantling voting rights to inflate their numbers and win a victory over the voter registration gap, this has not stopped Florida Democrats from winning elections like the Jacksonville mayoral race or capturing House District 35. Both of these victories reflected a growing lack of enthusiasm for the Republican Party and a growing number of independent voters who reject extremism in Florida,” they 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 signing up with the Democratic Party of Florida, which she called a “huge shift in momentum.”
Florida voters will also vote on constitutional amendments, including one to protect abortion rights and another to legalize marijuana, in November. Democrats have raised high hopes for victory in these cases, which have broad support within their party. Pollsters and political strategists — even across party lines — have indicated that these amendments bring the state back into playas abortion referendums in other states have favored Democrats.
