Trump scores big win in Florida’s GOP presidential primary

Former President Donald Trump unsurprisingly cruised to an overwhelming victory in the Florida GOP presidential primary on Tuesday after having already secured his party’s nomination.

“THANK YOU, FLORIDA — MAGA!” Trump posted on his Truth Social site.

With 94% of the vote counted, Trump had 80.8% to 14% for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and 3.9% for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Haley, DeSantis and four other former candidates remained on the ballot despite dropping out.

“Tonight’s results underline what we already know: Florida Republicans are united and ready to send Joe Biden back to his basement in Delaware this November,” state GOP chairman Evan Power said in a statement. “I want to congratulate President Trump on his overwhelming victory tonight, and I look forward to working with him to Make America Great Again!”

Despite the large margin of victory, Trump has continually posted lower numbers than expected in GOP primaries for a semi-incumbent, even after Haley dropped out of the race.

Almost 20% of registered Republican voters in Florida’s closed primary cast ballots for someone else, including about 23% in Orange County and 28% in Seminole.

“Those results suggest that Donald Trump still has a lot to worry about,” Gregory Koger, a professor of political science at the University of Miami, said Tuesday night.

“The next challenge for any party nominee is to consolidate the party and bring the coalition together,” Koger said. “And there seems to be a consistent 20% to 30% of the party that rejects him, even when there is no active candidate running against him. … And it remains to be seen what he can say and do to bring them around.”

At the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Altamonte Springs, a few dozen people cast their ballots early in the day. Some said they were eager to see Trump return to the White House.

“He represents the best chance to put this country back on the course it needs to be,” said David Salazar, 63. “I think the current government is driving the country into the ground.”

Salazar listed his top issues as the Southern border, the economy and building a strong military.

Diane Chavis, 70, said Trump impressed her during his presidency.

“He can run a business,” she said. “Our country was in a lot better shape when he was president.”

As for DeSantis, Chavis said she likes him as governor but thought he was “probably a little ahead of his time.”

Tod Townsend, 61, of Winter Springs, said he didn’t base his vote on Trump’s personality but rather “what he accomplished” as president.

He also doesn’t see the country moving in a “positive direction” under Biden.

“I don’t really care for the personality that much, but we don’t vote them in for their personality,” he said outside a polling station in Casselberry. “Most presidents have been either womanizers or gamblers or whatever. It’s the human factor. Every president has stuff on them. … I vote for the man that I think can do the most for the country. In this era we are in, I believe that is going to be Trump.”

Townsend said he considered DeSantis and Haley but settled on Trump.

“If he and Ron were stlll neck and neck, I don’t know,” Townsend said. “Ron DeSantis is a lot more polished. He doesn’t say belittling things about people the way Trump does. There are a lot of things about Trump’s character I don’t like. He would not be a friend of mine, but we’re looking for people who can take action and make it happen.”

Mark Hall, of Windermere, said he was casting “an anti-Trump vote” for Haley.

“If he had respected what the Constitution said, and had conceded when it said he had lost the election in 2020, my vote would possibly be different,” Hall said at the Lifebridge Church polling site near Windermere. “But there’s no way I can vote for somebody who is a proven enemy of the Constitution.”

Asked whether there would be enough protest voters in Florida to send a message, he said, “that’s the prayer. I’ve been a Republican since the ’90s. And I’m worried about the party.”

After casting his primary ballot in Palm Beach, a reporter asked Trump who he voted for.

“Did somebody just say, ‘Who’d you vote for?’” he said with a laugh. “Yeah, I voted for Donald Trump.”

Trump’s undisputed victory in the Florida primary came after months of the state GOP shifting toward him and away from DeSantis.

Trump’s entry into the race at an event in Mar-a-Lago in November 2022 drew dismissive headlines such as “Florida Man Makes Announcement on page 26 of the New York Post, while DeSantis’ 19-point reelection victory that same month saw front page coverage calling him “DeFuture.”

But close Trump ally Christian Ziegler was elected state GOP chair in February 2023, the first signs that DeSantis’ hold over the party was not absolute.

For months, Trump railed against DeSantis, slamming him as an “average” governor who came begging for an endorsement when he first ran in 2018.

The first of what became 91 felony charges against Trump dropped in March 2023, leading DeSantis to defend him and threaten to block extradition as Trump’s poll numbers jumped among Republicans.

In April, 10 GOP members of Congress from Florida dined at Mar-a-Lago after having endorsed Trump.

By the time DeSantis entered the race himself in a glitchy Twitter announcement in May, Trump had taken a solid lead over every GOP challenger he would never relinquish.

The state party followed suit, with its leaders voting unanimously in September to drop the requirement that a presidential candidate had to sign a loyalty oath to appear on the ballot, a major victory for Trump.

Ziegler was removed as chair in January amid a sex scandal, replaced by the DeSantis-aligned Power. But by then, the DeSantis campaign was limping toward a distant second-place finish in Iowa.

DeSantis dropped out less than a week later and endorsed Trump. The state GOP didn’t wait for Haley to drop out in March before endorsing the former president.

Florida’s Democratic Party canceled its presidential primary and declared President Joe Biden the winner.