According to internal Florida GOP data, the number of registered Republicans in Florida is now higher than that of Democrats. Governor Ron DeSantis spoke to the National Conference of State Legislatures audience on Friday to announce the news.
“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, for the first time in the history of Florida we have overtaken Democrats. There are more registered Republicans in Florida than Democrats.”
According to the Miami Herald, registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans almost 700,000. In September 2008, Democrats held a 24,000-vote lead.
Joe Gruters, Florida GOP Chair, stated that while data collected by the party shows they are ahead, it is unlikely that the party’s progress will be publicly reported until December when the Florida Division of Elections releases the data. Gruters blamed this on a delay in reporting data.
“According to our numbers internally, we think that we’ve unofficially passed the Democrats,” Gruters said.
Florida is officially a purple state but it has been consistently under statewide GOP control since over 20 years. Florida Democrats are facing another problem with the reversal in registration.
This is another victory for the GOP as it seeks further control of the state.
“The level of enthusiasm in support of registering Republicans is unprecedented, and this is a true milestone moment in Florida’s history,” the Republican Party of Florida’s executive director, Helen Aguirre Ferré, said.
