Gov. Ron DeSantis said
Florida is now a red state, with a significantly larger number of registered
Republican voters than Democrats, securing a solid majority for the GOP in what was once a key swing state. “Florida is off the board. It is a Republican state,” Mr. DeSantis said. “We used to be a one-point state, every
election hung on how would Florida go; that is not true anymore. And I think that’s a good thing for the party.” Mr. DeSantis told the host that the GOP in Florida now has nearly “900,000 more registered
Republicans than Democrats.” He pointed out that in 2018, when he won his first term as governor, the GOP was about 300,000 voters behind Democrats. “You’re talking about a million-plus voter registration shift,” Mr. DeSantis said. In the interview, the Florida governor said the GOP voter base is growing because more voters are switching from
Democrats and non-party affiliations to the Republican Party than vice versa. Mr. DeSantis revealed another reason contributing to the record gap is Florida’s policies. “I do think that migration has skewed amongst people who come to Florida, not because they want to change the policies to reflect in Illinois, or
California or
New York, but because they appreciate how Florida has done it differently from where they’re coming to,” Mr. DeSantis said. Florida made the headlines in 2000 when Republican
George W. Bush won the state with a 537-vote margin, helping him to secure the
White House. Since 1980, Democrat presidential candidates have won the state only three times, while Republicans secured it eight times. Campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a memo first shared with
NBC News that the Biden campaign has “multiple pathways” to securing 270 electoral votes, with Florida being one of them. “Make no mistake: Florida is not an easy state to win, but it is a winnable one for President Biden, especially given Trump’s weak, cash-strapped campaign, and serious vulnerabilities within his coalition,” she stated.