Florida GOP registration edge crosses 900,000-voter mark

Florida’s red hue continues to deepen.

The state’s Division of Elections just updated its tally of active voters, and it’s more bad news for Democrats.

As of April 30, Republicans had 906,551 more registered voters than Democrats in the Sunshine State.

It’s the GOP’s biggest lead since it overtook Democrats for the first time in November 2021.

Of Florida’s 13.47 million active voters, 5.24 million were registered with the Republican Party of Florida compared to 4.34 million registered as Florida Democratic Party members.

Another 3.53 million had no party affiliation, while 352,027 belonged to minor parties.

Republicans gained 105,317 voters since New Year’s Eve. Democrats lost 21,533 members over the same stretch. That included 3,866 additional GOP voters and 10,651 fewer Democratic voters since March 31.

Democrats’ share of the voter rolls fell from 38% in 2016 and 33% six months ago to 32% by the end of April.

Republicans, meanwhile, held a 39% share going into May, up from 38.5% in late December and 35% in 2016.

Florida’s shifting voter base is partly attributable to an influx of transplants. Between March 2020 and January 2023, an estimated 394,000 active voters flocked to the state. Of those, 46% were Republicans, 23% were Democrats and 29% were independents.

“Florida’s statewide registration numbers continue to show the exodus of voters from the Democratic Party as they embrace (former) President (Donald) Trump and the Republican Party and our policies of economic freedom and opportunity,” Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera, a GOP State Committeeman, told Florida Politics.

“In general, starting with President Trump and continuing with Gov. (Ron) DeSantis and the Florida Legislature, their policies are driving voters — including Hispanics, the fastest-growing group in Florida and the United States — to flee the Democratic Party and register as Republicans.”

Between December 2022 and December 2023, more than 1.18 million voters were dropped from Florida’s active voter rolls. Democrats and no-party voters accounted for 90% of them.

The Florida Democratic Party has suggested that backhanded GOP tactics are much to blame.

Chair Nikki Fried urged members this month to check their status after former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey, a Democrat running for Florida’s 27th Congressional District, revealed that the state had improperly removed him in October from its list of active voters.

The Miami-Dade Elections Department said the error was due to a mistake with his longtime address. Fried said it was the result of election laws the GOP-dominant Legislature passed in 2022 and 2023 to stifle voter registration and voter fraud, which critics decried as veiled attempts to suppress progressive votes.

“For years, Republicans have been wiping Democrats from the voter rolls to inflate their voter registration advantage,” she said. “(Now they’ve) been caught in the act.”

Republicans have also worked to keep voters from having their registration errantly switched or deactivated. This year, lawmakers unanimously passed a bill by Reps. Peggy Gossett Seidman of Highland Beach and Mike Caruso of Delray Beach — both Republicans — to address a DMV “glitch” that switched an untold number of voters in the past seven to eight years to no party affiliation.

DeSantis signed the measure last month.

To turn Florida’s red tide blue again, Democratic leaders across the state must prioritize voter registration and enrollment in mail-in voting, said Miami Gardens Sen. Shevrin Jones, who was elected Chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party last month.

“The fact that Republicans now hold a voter registration advantage that Democrats similarly enjoyed not too long ago is extremely concerning,” he told Florida Politics by text.

“Our voters are out there. It’s on us as Democrats to meet voters where they are and with a message that resonates with them. In Miami-Dade, we are going to get out into the community and talk to voters, reminding them what’s at stake in this election, working with them to ensure they are registered to vote and vote by mail, and then creating a voting plan with them for Get Out The Vote (GOTV).”