Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) pointed to the Sunshine State’s policies for the noticeable uptick in voter registrations made in Florida for the Republican Party.
Florida’s registered Republican voters currently outpace Democrats by nearly 900,000, a far cry from when Republicans had almost 300,000 fewer voters in 2018. DeSantis noted how the shift in voters is due, in part, to those who were already living in Florida swapping their party registration to Republican, as well as those who were politically homeless now joining the party.
“But I do think the 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’s done it different from where they’re coming to, and so I think that’s contributed to this really record thing,” DeSantis said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.
DeSantis noted that Florida used to be a swing state in various elections and that the party that would win the state would typically do so with only a 1% voting majority. However, the governor argued that this is no longer the case under his leadership and that this is a good thing for his party going forward.
Republican voter registration in Florida surpassed Democrats in 2021. Nearly 444,500 people moved to the Sunshine State from July 2021 to July 2022, marking it as the largest year-over-year impact of residents moving.
By March 2022, registration exceeded by more than 100,000.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
As of Thursday, registered Republicans are leading Democrats by 889,569 voters, while the latter party has lost 1,000 voters.
DeSantis was also asked if he had any plans to run for president again in 2028, as he announced in January that he was suspending his 2024 presidential campaign. The Florida governor said he did not have any plans for the future, but that he is currently focused on his state ahead of the elections.