Florida Democrats hemorrhage more than 100,000 voters since election as GOP lead grows

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – Florida Republicans have added to their already comfortable lead over state Democrats considerably since the 2022 election, according to data from the Florida Department of State as of March 31.

Both major parties in the Sunshine State lost thousands of voters since the Nov. 30, 2022 data. However, Democrats lost more than 115,000 while Republicans lost just over 16,000.

As of Nov. 30, 2022, Republicans led Democrats by 356,212 voters. A few months later, Republicans now lead by 454,918 voters – expanding the margin by nearly 100,000.

The lead expansion is primely due to the Democrats suffering hemorrhaging losses.

While both parties did lose voters, minor parties and No Party Affiliation voters, or NPAs, grew by collectively several tens of thousands.

A large portion of the registration loss can also occur due to the Department of State clearing out voter rolls. According to the department, in 2023 so far, more than 67,000 active and more than 3,000 inactive voters have been removed.

In comparison, more than 131,000 have been added.

Earlier this year, both state parties elected new leadership. The Republicans chose Christian Ziegler to be party chairman while Democrats elected former gubernatorial candidate and former Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.

Since Fried’s election, Democrats suffered losses in the Duval County elections in March.

Looking to future elections, Ziegler has pushed the Florida GOP to prepare for further bolstering of turnout and even aims to flip deep blue areas red.

In 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis won a majority of the vote in all but five “holdout” counties.

They have since launched the “Blue County Strategy Committee,” which will be focused on “picking off” Democrat-held seats at every level of government. Alachua, Broward, Gadsden, Leon and Orange County will be its prime focus, along with targeting battleground counties.

“Governor DeSantis set the bar high – winning 62 of 67 counties in Florida – but our job is not done until we win the other five counties are red and there are no Democrats in office or considering running for office in the State of Florida,” Ziegler said.

“To accomplish that, I have launched the Florida GOP Blue County Strategy Committee, which will be laser focused on holding every Democrat in office accountable and picking off Democrat-held seats at every level of government – local, state and federal.”

Ziegler also launched the “Early Vote Operations Committee” further aimed at boosting turnout.

“News out of Wisconsin tonight is that we lost the vital Supreme Court seat due to Democrats outperforming us in Early Voting… That isn’t going to happen in Florida,” Ziegler said earlier this month. “We are going to aggressively go after every ballot and bank votes as soon as possible.”