A heavily populated
South Atlantic state with a large and increasingly conservative
Latino American population and the northern parts lying in the
Bible Belt, Florida is considered to be a moderately to strongly
red state, having not elected a Democratic governor since 1994 nor a Democrat for president since
2012 and having moved significantly rightward in the last decade. In
2022, incumbent governor
Ron DeSantis was re-elected by a 19.4% margin, a considerable improvement from his 0.4-point victory four years earlier in the
gubernatorial election during the
2018 blue wave. This was followed two years later by Republican
Donald Trump winning his adoptive home state by a 13% margin as he won a second non-consecutive presidential term, improving his 3.4% margin of victory in
2020 and seemingly diminishing Florida's longtime
swing-state and
bellwether status. Republicans also control all statewide offices, a large majority of the state's U.S. House delegation, both U.S. Senate seats, and supermajorities in both houses of the
Florida Legislature.
Candidate eligibility and requirements Article IV, Section 5(b) of the
Florida Constitution states that, for a person to serve as governor, they must: • Be at least thirty years old; • Be a permanent resident of Florida for at least seven years; • Not have served as governor for six years or more of the two prior terms. == Republican primary ==