2024 Florida presidential election result: Donald Trump of the Republican Party won Florida on Tuesday (local time) for the third consecutive election in the US Presidential election 2024, earning the state’s 30 electoral votes, reported the Associated Press.
Once a vital swing state, Florida has been leaning increasingly Republican in recent years, with no Democratic presidential candidate winning since Barack Obama’s victory in 2012.
Donald Trump expanded his lead in his adopted home state from 2016 to 2020, and the Associated Press declared him the winner at 8:01 p.m. EST (6:31am Wednesday, India time)
Donald Trump not only improved his 2020 performance in Republican areas across Florida but also made gains in the state’s competitive regions, positioning himself to surpass Vice President Kamala Harris in some moderately Democratic areas.
When the race was called, Donald Trump was leading Kamala Harris by 11 percentage points with around 80% of the vote counted. His lead in Miami-Dade County was particularly striking—and deeply discouraging for Democrats. It’s been decades since a Republican presidential candidate carried the county, which Joe Biden had won by approximately 7 points four years prior.
With over 81% of the vote tallied in Florida, the AP called the race. To overtake Trump’s lead, Harris would have needed 73% of the remaining vote.
Florida last swung for a Democratic presidential candidate more than a decade ago when Barack Obama narrowly defeated Mitt Romney. Since then, the state has trended Republican.
Once a key battleground, Florida’s political landscape has shifted due to both Democratic missteps and demographic changes. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ nearly 20-point landslide win in 2022, including in the longtime Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County, highlighted this trend.
It’s not just conservative retirees moving south; immigrants fleeing authoritarianism in Venezuela have found allies in the GOP, similar to Cuban exiles who have long supported the party.
Meanwhile, Democrats have faced challenges in candidate recruitment and funding. Many assumed younger Cuban Americans would lean Democratic, but this hasn’t materialized. Coupled with the high cost of campaigning in Florida’s vast media markets, Democrats find themselves sidelined in the state’s political landscape—essentially lost in the Everglades.