These Florida counties are the most Red or most Blue

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida has been a reliably Republican-leaning state for years when it comes to election results. Despite larger numbers of Democratic voters registered in 2020, former President Donald Trump carried the state in the general election by 3.36%.

Two years later, there are more Republicans registered than Democrats, and the midterm elections are set to decide who controls both chambers in Congress.

Meanwhile, Florida Democrats haven’t won a race for governor since 2006, according to reporting by the Associated Press. In fact, following former Gov. Lawton Chiles’ time in office, Floridians have put a registered Republican into the governor’s chair every year since 1998. While Charlie Crist was governor for a single term in 2006, he was a registered member of the Republican Party at the time.

The AP continued, saying that “in 2008, Florida Democrats enjoyed a nearly 700,000 voter-registration advantage over Republicans, providing a considerable cushion when then-Sen. Barack Obama beat Republican Sen. John McCain by fewer than 205,000 votes in the state.”

Fast forward to the 2020 election, 11,144,855 voters participated in the November election. Data from the Florida Dept. of State showed that 5,668,731 voted for Trump, 5,297,045 voted for President Joe Biden, and the remainder chose a variety of other candidates.

The vote tally was in spite of the registration numbers. In 2020, Florida had more than 14.5 million voters in 2020, with 5,218,739 registered Republicans and 5,315,954 registered Democrats. There were nearly 3.8 million voters with no registered party affiliation, and just over 230,000 voters who had listed a “minor party,” according to state records.

The 2022 registration numbers paint a redder, more Republican preview of the midterm elections.

While there are slightly fewer overall registered voters in the state, down to 14.46 million, Republicans outnumber Democrats 5.26 million to 4.97 million. The number of independent voters, with no party affiliation, grew to just under 4 million, while the number of minor party voters increased by 30,000.

With the margins in mind, which counties are the reddest, or bluest, in 2022?

In the 2020 Presidential Race, here's how red and blue Florida was.

Only certain parts of Florida have close to even registration numbers, and only seven counties have razor-thin margins between the two major parties.