Florida’s traditionally blue Miami-Dade County went red Tuesday evening as Republicans celebrated victories statewide, representing a significant political shift in the Sunshine State.
Tuesday’s election marked a massive shift in favor of Republicans in Florida, who have made significant gains in the state over the past four years. In late 2021, for the first time ever, registered Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats in the Sunshine State. But, over the past year, that lead has swelled to roughly 300,000 nationwide, and it showed Tuesday evening.
Statewide, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) defeated Democrat Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) by over 19 percent, or 1.5 million votes. Similarly, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) soundly defeated Democrat Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) by over 16 percent, or over 1.2 million votes.
Some of the most significant gains for DeSantis were made in traditionally blue Miami-Dade. In 2018, Democrat Andrew Gillum took the county by over 20 percent, with Gillum obtaining 478,958 votes to DeSantis’s 311,581. Four years later, with over 95 percent of the tallies in statewide, DeSantis led in Miami-Dade with 393,405 votes to Crist’s 312,762, garnering 55 percent to Crist’s 44 percent. The early returns served as a shock to the establishment media, as Rubio also took the county by nine percent:
Similar trends were seen in Palm Beach County as well:
Palm Beach County 2018:
Gillum 341,409 votes, 58.2 percent of the vote
DeSantis 241,016 votes, 41.1 percent of the vote
Palm Beach County 2022:
DeSantis 278,089 votes, 51 percent of the vote
Crist 262,117 votes, 48 percent of the vote
“I believe the survival of the American experiment requires a revival of true American principles. Florida has proved that it can be done. We offer a ray of hope that better days still lie ahead,” the governor said during his victory speech Tuesday night, concluding that Florida is “on the right track.”
“We have embraced freedom. We have maintained law and order. We have protected the rights of parents. We have respected our taxpayers, and we reject woke ideology,” DeSantis said, concluding that the results speak for themselves as it is “apparent that this election, we will have garnered a significant number of votes from people who may not have voted for me four years ago.”
