Republican voter registration in Florida “nearly doubled” in 2023, the Republican National Committee (RNC) told Breitbart News.
This has been a long time coming, beginning in November 2021 after Republicans formally overtook Democrats in terms of voter registration.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said at the time, “When I got elected governor, we had 280,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state of Florida.”
“Today, and it will probably be fully publicized very soon, today for the first time in the history of Florida, we’ve now overtaken Democrats. There are more registered Republicans in Florida than Democrats,” he continued.
From that moment on, Republicans have only continued to expand their lead, toppling Democrats by more than 100,000 mere months later, in March 2022. That figure doubled to 200,000 in July, and in December 2022, the figure stood around 350,000. In February 2023, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 400,000 registered voters, and that figure swelled to 680,030 as of October 31, 2023, with Republicans having 5,153,695 voters to the Democrat party’s 4,473,665.
Overall, the RNC said Republican voter registration nearly doubled in 2023 in the Sunshine State, and the number of no-party-affiliation (NPA) in Florida dropped by 413,763 over the year. Many of these individuals, the RNC said, became Republicans.
“We’ve not only flipped Florida from blue to red, but Republicans keep making historic voter registration gains thanks to our year-round, permanent ground game and the strength of Republican policies,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement to Breitbart News.
“While Biden’s weakness continues to cause crises in our economy, at the border, and across the world, Floridians and all Americans are finding solutions in the Republican Party,” she added.
For greater perspective, Democrats led Republicans in voter registration by 257,175 in 2018. According to the RNC, “this represents nearly a million voter swing in the past 5 years” in the Sunshine State.
Not only that, but Republicans have a GOP advantage in 54 of Florida’s 67 counties, and they are coming close to flipping two more — St. Lucie (Republicans down by 2,635) and Madison (Republicans down by 473) — from Democrat to Republican.
The RNC also highlighted its involvement in attempting to solidify Florida as a red state, noting its launch of “Bank Your Vote,” which it described as the “Republicans’ initiative to maximize pre-Election Day voting.”
The RNC also invested $6 million in Florida in 2022, which saw traditionally blue Miami-Dade flipping red for both DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).
Republicans hope to carry this momentum into the 2024 election, securing Florida for the eventual GOP nominee. Notably, former President Donald Trump — who leads the GOP primary in Florida by double digits — won Florida by 1.3 points 2016 and 3.3 points in 2020.