FL Win Solidifies Trump As Frontrunner: GOP Primary Election Results

Updated: 9:41 p.m. Tuesday

FLORIDA — Former President Donald J. Trump, the only major candidate left in the Republican race for the presidential nomination, won his adopted state's presidential primary election Tuesday.

The Associated Press called the race at 8 p.m., the media outlet posted to X, formerly Twitter. Trump won the FL GOP presidential primary election with 81 percent of the GOP vote; Democrats said he lost ground from the 2020 race.

With 98 percent of the votes counted as of 9:45 p.m., 93 percent of Republicans or about 906,000 voters, cast a ballot for Trump, the Associated Press reported. Former ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley earned about 14 percent of the vote, at about 155,000, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis received just shy of 4 percent of the vote.

The Florida Democratic Party said in a statement that Trump lost ground compared to the support he received in the last election, and the Sunshine State could be up for grabs in the November general election.

“Tonight’s election made one thing clear: Trump is in trouble in Florida,” said Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried. “The results of Florida’s Republican primary show Donald Trump backsliding by 14%, losing support from moderate Republicans who are rejecting his extremism in growing numbers.

“With moderate Republicans protesting in double digits and non-party affiliated voters breaking for Democrats in recent elections — the bottom line of the night is — Florida is in play," Fried said. "Don’t count us out.”

DeSantis, Haley and other well-known GOP candidates ended their campaigns in recent months ahead of the Florida primary.

Scroll down to see live vote totals as they come in via the state's Florida Election Watch, at the bottom of this story.

Because Florida is a closed primary state, only registered GOP voters could cast their votes in Tuesday’s Republican primary election. Trump should end the night with Florida’s 125 delegates.

As of Monday morning, 730,707 Republicans had already voted in the primary, according to Florida’s Division of Elections. Of these votes, 510,317 cast their ballot by mail while 220,390 voted early.

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A Real Clear Politics average of national polls on the matchup between Trump and President Joe Biden give the former president a 1.7 percent lead.

Democrats and independent voters could only vote in the handful of municipal elections taking place Tuesday. Search for local races and results in your Florida county or city here.

Leaders in the Florida Democratic Party decided in the fall to place only current President Joe Biden’s name on the March 19 ballot, forgoing a presidential primary for the party, according to the Florida Phoenix. State law says that if a party has just one presidential candidate, that candidate’s name won’t go on the ballot.

Despite several ongoing legal issues, Trump was the only major candidate still in the running for Tuesday’s GOP primary after others suspended their campaigns in recent months.

Those who initially qualified to run for president as a Republican in the Sunshine State as of the Nov. 30 deadline, according to the Florida Department of State, were:

• Ryan L. Binkley
• Doug Burgum
• Chris Christie
• Ron DeSantis
• Nikki R. Haley
• Asa Hutchinson
• Vivek Ramaswamy
• Donald J. Trump

Christie, former New Jersey governor, dropped out of the 2024 presidential race in early January.
Moments before he announced he was leaving the race, a hot mic caught him disparaging other Republican candidates, the New York Times reported.

“She’s going to get smoked, and you and I both know it,” he said in a reference to Haley. “She’s not up to this.”

He added that “DeSantis called me, petrified.”

DeSantis dropped out of the race Jan. 21, days after he lost the Iowa caucuses.

"I can't ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don't have a clear path to victory," he said in a video posted to social media.

Haley was the last to leave the Republican race March 6 after Trump swept Super Tuesday primaries, including in her home state. She did win the primaries in the District of Columbia and Vermont, becoming the first woman to win a GOP primary.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.