Florida Votes to Pick a Successor to Governor Ron DeSantis
Florida's general election is scheduled for November 3, when voters will choose who succeeds Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis cannot run for a third term because of term limits, the rule that caps how long an officeholder can serve, and he leaves office in January. The race is between Republican Byron Donalds, a US Representative, and David Jolly, a former member of Congress who is a centrist Democrat. Both won their party's nomination in the August 18 primary.
DeSantis has been one of the most prominent figures in Florida politics for close to a decade. He is a former naval officer who served three terms in the US House of Representatives before winning the governor's office. In 2018 he defeated Democrat Andrew Gillum by less than half a percentage point, with the endorsement of Donald Trump. In 2022 he won re-election by 19 points, the largest margin since 1982, and became the first Republican gubernatorial candidate in 20 years to win Miami-Dade County, the state's most populous county. During the 2024 presidential race, he was considered one of the chief Republican challengers to Trump, who went on to win the nomination.
The state's political map has changed since DeSantis first ran. According to Al Jazeera, Florida's Division of Elections currently shows Republicans holding a 1.5 million registered-voter advantage over Democrats. In 2020, Democrats held an advantage of at least 100,000 voters. In Florida's 2024 presidential vote, Trump beat Kamala Harris by 13.1 percentage points, compared with a margin of 1.2 points for Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016. The last Democrat to win statewide office in Florida was former agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried, eight years ago.
Redistricting, the redrawing of electoral districts, has also been part of the state's recent politics. DeSantis unveiled a new Florida congressional map in April, and the state has 28 seats in the US House of Representatives. Florida's secretary of state, Cord Byrd, has issued public updates on election preparations ahead of the November vote.
DeSantis's profile has extended beyond the state. In a March straw poll of conservative activists at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Vice President JD Vance topped the field for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, while DeSantis received 7 percent.
