Ron DeSantis lauds GOP gains in Miami-Dade, errantly touts ‘plurality’ of voters there

Gov. Ron DeSantis is celebrating a sizable red shift in Miami-Dade’s voter base — while making the same incorrect assertion as other Florida Republicans that registered GOP voters now outnumber Democrats in the county.

In a video posted to X, DeSantis said he is “so excited” that Miami-Dade “now has a plurality of registered Republicans.” He then gave a brief history of GOP gains in Florida’s most populous county, a longtime Democratic stronghold that flipped for him in 2022 and delivered President Donald Trump and Miami-Dade Republicans historic victories in November.

In 2018, he said, there were “almost 250,000 more registered Democrats in Miami-Dade County than Republicans.” (State and county records show the difference was less than 225,000.)

“And now, a little more than six years later, we now have more Republicans in Miami-Dade than Democrats,” he said.

Data that Florida Politics acquired from the Miami-Dade Elections Department, led by Republican Alina Garcia, shows that isn’t true — at least not yet.

The county’s off-year voter roll maintenance shifted far more Democrats than Republicans into “inactive” status, meaning they didn’t vote in the past two General Election cycles between 2020 and 2024.

Republican voters classified as “active” do indeed outstrip their Democratic counterparts 449,337 to 414,680, a difference of 34,657 voters.

But Democrats still lead in the total number of registered voters 555,524 to 514,538, a 40,986-voter difference.

Voters recategorized as “inactive” aren’t immediately removed from the voter rolls, and they can return to “active” status through any contact with the Elections Department, from signing petitions and calling the office to simply showing up to a polling site to vote.

If a voter does not interact with the Elections Department for four consecutive General Election cycles — eight years — he or she is removed.

Notably, Florida’s state-level list of registered voters only counts those marked as “active,” a distinction Florida GOP Chair Evan Power said shows Miami-Dade has essentially flipped.

In his Wednesday video, DeSantis attributed the county’s rightward swing in recent years not solely to voter registration drives but to the Republican Party’s policy positions on parental rights, school choice, law enforcement and tax relief.

He emphasized that the GOP’s clear stance on these issues resonated with voters and led to the shift, which comes as Florida Republicans near an unprecedented 1.3 million-voter advantage statewide.

The change is due to good Republican policy, DeSantis said, but also because the Democratic Party “has lost the confidence of so many people, not just in this state but throughout the country.”

But he urged members of his party to resist the urge to revel in the party’s gains and potentially become complacent. Democrats’ losses, he said, should be “a lesson” for Republicans going forward.

“If we’re not delivering on what we told the voters we would do, then I think you can see it moving in the other direction. If we’re not drawing a sharp contrast with the left, if we’re blurring the differences and even trying to make common cause with left-wing policies, that will not end well for Republicans,” he said.

“Boldness is what delivers big victories … but do not take it for granted. All this stuff is reversible, very quickly.”