In the November 2026 midterms, when Democrats swept to victories across the country, Florida Republicans 2026 midterms results stood nearly alone. The state delivered the only wins of the night for a party otherwise routed, sending Congressman Byron Donalds - a Donald Trump ally - to the governor's mansion as Florida's first Black governor and electing Ashley Moody to the US Senate.

But the survival was narrow. Both Donalds and Moody won with margins of victory under 3%, while Florida Democrats made a net gain of 15 house seats in the state to strip the party's supermajority in the legislature. Elsewhere, the blue wave ran through Democratic upsets in South Carolina, Texas, Ohio, and elsewhere, leaving Florida as a single red flag fluttering in a Democratic night.

• •Byron Donalds, a Trump ally and congressman, was elected Florida's first Black governor.
• •Ashley Moody won the other statewide race, a seat in the US Senate.
• •Both margins of victory were under 3%.
• •Democrats gained 15 house seats, ending the Republican supermajority.

A state that turned red

Only a generation ago, Florida was the ultimate swing state. In recent years it turned reliably red, becoming a conservative stronghold and the base from which Trump plotted his remarkable political comeback from the wilderness of his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden after the January 6 riots.

The outgoing governor, Ron DeSantis, molded so many of the policies that were expanded nationwide during Trump's second administration. Those policies developed in Florida included attacks on LGBTQ+ communities; an aggressive, taxpayer-funded immigration crackdown and assaults on diversity, equity and inclusion, especially in higher education.

The gerrymander that failed

DeSantis's mid-cycle gerrymandering did not survive the election. Democrats captured all four districts, out of Florida's 28, that were redrawn to disadvantage them, and held four others. The Florida Democratic party said on Wednesday in a post on X that Florida voters saw through the blatant power grab.

Aubrey Jewett, professor of political science at the University of Central Florida, called the effort a failure. "In this election cycle at least, it was a wash, a failed effort by Republicans," Jewett said, adding that the fight will continue in the next election.

Nixon's near-miss and what comes next

The Senate race showed how close the ground had shifted. Angie Nixon, a democratic socialist, former labor organizer and state representative, lost to Moody after running on a shoestring-budget, grassroots campaign, with no television advertisements. She lost by 2.9% in a seat most recently won by Marco Rubio, who took it in 2022 by more than 16%.

Young voters, Hispanics and Black voters in particular came out in droves to support her, but national Democratic financial support arrived too little, too late. Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic party, said at a Wednesday press conference that Democrats were looking at the results across the country and could only imagine what kind of day they would be having with sustained national support.

DeSantis, at a Wednesday press conference, characterized the nationwide Republican wipeout as "close to an extinction-level event", and took credit for Florida holding the line. Florida Democrats, he argued, had reached a high-water mark, questioning what circumstances would ever let them win statewide.

Jewett saw a more complicated picture: "Florida is a red state, there's no doubt about it, but there are different shades of red." He noted that Republicans always win there, but said DeSantis really was almost all-powerful, getting almost anything he wanted, while it is unlikely Donalds will have the clout that DeSantis had in his prime - in part because Trump is severely weakened, which may leave Donalds pushing the Maga agenda less hard.

Nixon, for her part, said she is getting straight back to work. "We helped drive turnout and broke the super majority in the state house and senate. 2028 is around the corner," she said, pointing to the next statewide cycle.

The report notes that Trump will now spend part of the final two years of what is now a lame-duck presidency in Florida, playing golf - a regular presence in the state his party barely held.