2022 Florida gubernatorial election

The 2022 Florida gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Florida, alongside other state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Party governor Ron DeSantis won re-election in a landslide and defeated the Democratic Party nominee, former U.S. representative Charlie Crist, who previously served as governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 as a Republican and later as an Independent. No Democrat has been elected governor of Florida since 1994.

According to exit polls, DeSantis won 65% of White voters, 13% of Black voters, and 58% of Latinos; of the latter group, DeSantis won 69% of Cubans and 56% of Puerto Ricans. DeSantis' large margin of victory was in part due to him flipping Democratic stronghold Miami-Dade County for the first time since 2002, and Palm Beach County for the first time since 1986, as well as winning Hillsborough, Osceola, Pinellas, and St. Lucie counties for the first time since 2006; this was also the first gubernatorial election since 2006 in which a candidate received over 50% of the vote. His 19.4% margin of victory was the largest since 1982 and the largest for a Republican in state history, compared to 0.4% 4 years earlier. It was also the first time the governorship was won by double digits since 2002, and the first time it was won by over one million votes.

Significantly, Crist's 40% performance was the worst for a Democratic nominee for governor of Florida since 1916. Republicans won the other statewide races by double digits; this is the first time since the end of Reconstruction that Democrats do not hold at least one of the statewide positions. DeSantis also made large gains among Hispanic voters, becoming the first Republican in decades to win a majority of those voters. He also had a major fundraising advantage over Crist, setting an all-time record for a gubernatorial candidate.

Some analysts believe that this election indicates that Florida has transitioned from being a Republican-leaning swing state into a reliable red state. Provided by Wikipedia