2022 Florida gubernatorial election

The 2022 Florida gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of Florida, alongside other state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Governor Ron DeSantis won re-election in a landslide, defeating the Democratic Party nominee, Charlie Crist, who served as governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 as a Republican and later as an independent. No Democrat has been elected governor of Florida since 1994.

With 59.4 percent of the vote, DeSantis won the largest margin of victory in a Florida gubernatorial election since 1982. Significantly, DeSantis won Miami-Dade County, which had been considered a Democratic stronghold and had last voted Republican in 2002, and Palm Beach County, which had not voted Republican since 1986. Crist conceded the election shortly after DeSantis was projected as the winner. DeSantis won 8 counties he lost in 2018.

According to exit polls, DeSantis won 65% of White voters, 13% of Black voters, and 58% of Latinos; of the latter group, DeSantis won 69% of Cubans and 56% of Puerto Ricans. DeSantis also won a majority of Latina women in Florida.

DeSantis's large margin of victory was in part due to him flipping Democratic stronghold Miami-Dade County for the first time since 2002, and Palm Beach County for the first time since 1986, as well as winning Hillsborough, Osceola, Pinellas, and St. Lucie counties for the first time since 2006. This was also the first gubernatorial election since 2006 in which a candidate received over 50% of the vote. His 19.4% margin of victory was the largest since 1982 and the largest for a Republican in state history, compared to 0.4% four years earlier. It was also the first time the governorship was won by double digits since 2002, and the first time it was won by over a million votes.

Significantly, Crist's 39.97% performance was the worst for a Democratic nominee for governor of Florida since 1916, a three candidate race. Republicans won all other statewide races by double digits; this is the first time since the end of Reconstruction that Democrats do not hold at least one of the statewide positions. DeSantis also made large gains among Hispanic voters, becoming the first Florida Republican in decades to win a majority of those voters. He also had a major fundraising advantage over Crist, setting an all-time record for a gubernatorial candidate.

Some analysts believe that this election marked the transition of Florida from being a swing state into a red state. Donald Trump would win Florida in 2024 by 13 percentage points, far exceeding his two prior performances in the state.