Trump wins Florida in a landslide, dominating every county in the state

Former President Donald Trump greets supporters during an election night watch party at the State Fairgrounds on Feb. 24, 2024 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Quality Journalism for Critical Times

Former President Donald Trump, who has battled legal and monetary challenges but retained his dominance in the Republican Party,  swept through Florida’s presidential preference primary on Tuesday, capturing more than 80 percent of the votes.

The Associated Press (AP) called the race just after the polls closed at 8:05 p.m. in Florida’s Panhandle.

In addition to Trump’s 80.3 percent of the vote, AP reported former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley at 14.4%, Gov. Ron DeSantis at 3.9%, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 0.8%. That was with 86% of the vote counted.

Trump was running against six other Republicans, all of whom had suspended their campaigns earlier this year. The former president surpassed the 1,215-delegate threshold required to become the presumptive GOP presidential nominee a week ago, providing even less incentive for GOP voters to come out to vote on Tuesday.

A Florida resident, Trump voted at a precinct in Palm Beach at about 4:30 p.m., telling reporters, “I voted for Donald Trump.”

In fact, Palm Beach County showed the highest number of votes on the Election Day turnout — about 45,000 — among the 67 counties across the state at about 8 p.m.  Overall, nearly 400,000 votes came in on Election Day, so far. (That doesn’t include vote-by-mail and early voting.)

Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power hailed Trump’s decisive victory in a statement shortly after the polls closed in most of Florida.

“The Florida GOP was proud to officially endorse President Trump earlier this year and 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. I want to congratulate President Trump on his overwhelming victory tonight and I look forward to working with him to Make America Great Again!”

This is the third straight election cycle in which Trump is vying for the Republican nomination for president. In 2020, Trump took 94% of the Republican electorate in Florida’s presidential primary, defeating nominal opposition that included former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld and former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh.

In 2016, Trump received 46% of the vote when he took 66 out of 67 counties in easily vanquishing Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who was still in the race at the time (Rubio won just Miami-Dade, his home county).

The Florida Democratic Party did not run a presidential primary election, as the party chose last fall to place only President Joe Biden on the ballot.

Party Chair Nikki Fried released her own statement, congratulating Biden for receiving all 224 delegates from Florida that will go to the convention this summer in Chicago.

“As we inch closer to the November elections, every state primary day reminds us of the choice we have to make — a choice between the continued progress of our country or the end of our democracy as we know it,” Fried said. “The contrast in this election couldn’t be clearer between Donald Trump, who is running on hatred, revenge and retribution, and President Biden, who is fighting to protect our freedoms and democracy and to make sure everyone has a fair shot. Florida Democrats are proud to support President Biden and Vice-President Harris for another term in the White House, and we will continue to fight tooth and nail to help get them there — we can’t allow Donald Trump anywhere near the presidency ever again.”

Trump leads Biden in Florida by six points, according to a St. Pete Poll survey released last week.

The post Trump wins Florida in a landslide, dominating every county in the state appeared first on Florida Phoenix.