Florida
Governor
Republican-turned-Democrat candidate Charlie Crist was hoping that his third try in the Florida governor’s race would lead to victory. Republican incumbent governor DeSantis, didn’t look like he was going to be going down easy. As of now, Florida’s legislature is controlled unilaterally by the Republican party. Stakes were high for DeSantis, especially with increased talk of his potential candidacy in the 2024 presidential race. As of late 2022, Florida has some of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws and with DeSantis’s success in the race for governor, it is no doubt that Florida will see continued crackdowns and bans on the procedure. In fact, DeSantis has signed and supported new laws banning abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest.
On the other side of the spectrum, Charlie Crist, the Democratic candidate for governor, served as a U.S. congressman from St. Petersburg since 2017 and resigned in late August of 2022 to focus on his campaign. He lost his race as a Democratic candidate for governor in 2014 and yet again on November 8th. Charlie Crist used DeSantis’s hard stances on the issues to his advantage, appealing to many left-leaning Floridians due to his promises of ensuring continued voting access to all, protecting the right to abortion, and protecting the LGBTQ+ community’s freedom in both local and national political spheres. DeSantis’s prior experience with the position and general popularity with the Republican party proved unshakeable, however.
As of the Thursday morning, November 10th, DeSantis holds 59.4% of the votes for governor (4,609,112). Crist, on the other hand, holds a less impressive 40% of the vote (3,102,136). DeSantis’s victory cemented Florida’s status as a red state and has set the stage for his potential success 2024 candidacy in the race for President.
Senate
The results in the Florida Senate race were particularly noteworthy as well. Republican incumbent Senator Marco Rubio has won a third term, defeating U.S. Representative Val Demings and holding a key seat as the GOP tried to regain control of a closely divided Senate. Going into the November 8th election, Democrats were hoping most to keep control of the Senate. They hoped, most of all, to have the verdict in leading important congressional committees and approving Biden’s appointments, especially to the U.S. Supreme Court. As of now, the Court has a conservative majority.
Although Republican candidate Rubio won the state’s vote by a landslide, by Floridian standards, Val Demings gave him a run for his money, the biggest competition he’d seen since his first term. In 2007, Val Demings made history when she was appointed to serve as Orlando’s first female chief of police and later became one of the Florida’s representatives in the House. She has spent the majority of her career launching into a relentless campaign to reduce violent crime and build new connections with the Florida community. Throughout her campaign, she voiced her impressive career statistics. Most impressively, under her watch, the Orlando Police Department reduced violent crime by more than 40 percent. Passionate about abortion rights and gun control, she was an appealing candidate to most Rubio adversaries.
Marco Rubio, on the other hand, like DeSantis, is a hopeful (yet less probable) candidate for the 2024 presidential election. He holds strong anti-abortion viewpoints and conflicting gun-control stances. Days after the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, he said that he would support age restrictions as well as expanded background checks on gun purchases. But at his first and only debate with Democratic challenger Demings, the senator said the law “doesn’t work” and also said background checks would not have stopped the litany of shootings the candidates argued over. Despite his conflicting claims and strongly conservative stances, he held onto his position of power and successfully won a third term in office. As of Thursday morning, November 10th, Rubio holds 57.7% of the vote (4,469,885) while Demings trails behind considerably with 41.3% of the vote (3,197,133).