Florida voters head to the polls August 18 to pick their party’s nominee for governor, in the first open race for the seat since Ron DeSantis took office, since he’s term-limited out after two consecutive terms. If you’ve been too busy to follow the field, here’s the plain-language rundown before you vote.
Florida runs closed primaries, meaning you can only vote in your own party’s primary, no crossover ballots. On the Republican side, the field is crowded: twelve candidates are on the ballot, though local coverage has centered mainly on four, Byron Donalds, Jay Collins, Paul Renner, and James Fishback, with Donalds carrying a Trump endorsement into the race. On the Democratic side, six candidates are running, with David Jolly, a former Republican congressman turned Democrat and vocal Trump critic, drawing significant attention as one of the better-known names in the field.
Beyond the horse-race framing, a few substantive dividing lines are worth knowing before you vote. Candidates have staked out different positions on data center development and its strain on the state’s power grid and water supply, on how aggressively to continue Florida’s property insurance reforms, and on education policy following years of rapid change to the state’s school choice and curriculum rules. Those differences matter more for how the state actually runs day to day than most of what shows up in 30-second ads.
Whoever wins each primary advances to the November 3 general election. If you’re registered with a major party and haven’t decided who’s getting your vote on the 18th, your county Supervisor of Elections office has sample ballots and polling place information posted online, worth five minutes before you go.
