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President Donald Trump will likely dominate the upcoming presidential race in the Sunshine State, as Florida Republicans are sweeping Democrats in the state’s early vote and absentee voting combined for the first time in history.
In a combined total featuring early and absentee voting, Florida Republicans lead Democrats by nearly nine points (44.38 to 35.29 percent) statewide with more than three million ballots cast, according to the state’s election data.
Republicans also narrowly prevailed in Miami-Dade County, once historically Democratic, for the first time ever with both early and absentee voting as of Thursday, JustTheNews reported.
Over 300,000 ballots have been cast in Miami-Dade, with the state’s Republicans closely leading with 121,389 ballots on Thursday evening against Democrats’ 118,387.
Of Florida’s 67 counties, Republicans currently lead in 60, while Democrats lead in seven, per the state’s election data, a big difference from only four years ago.
Florida Voice News Director Eric Daugherty stated in a post to X on Thursday that the final tally for early and mail-in voting in Florida had Democrats ahead by 1.3 points in 2020, making this cycle a 10-point swing favoring Republicans.
Florida was previously considered a swing state for decades but has favored Republicans during the past few elections. Trump won Florida in 2016 and 2020, while Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio won reelection in a landslide during their 2022 races.
Pre-election polling typically has underestimated Florida Republican support too, as President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led the state’s Real Clear Politics polling average, but the state swung against them considerably.
The latest Real Clear Politics averages showed President Trump carrying an 8.4-percent lead (52 to 43.6 percent) across Florida, while incumbent GOP Sen. Rick Scott, who is running for a second term, leads his rival, albeit more narrowly than the president, by five points (48.8 to 43.8 percent).
The number of Republican voters passed Democrats by over one million earlier this year, Main St Daily News reported, in the biggest margin for either party since the late 1980s.