# How Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will shape his state’s 2026 midterm race

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/how-florida-governor-ron-desantis-will-shape-his-states-2026-midterm-race/
- Published: 2026-11-03T13:05:03+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-03T23:48:52+00:00
- Original publisher: Al Jazeera (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/3/how-florida-governor-ron-desantis-will-shape-his-states-2026-midterm-race?traffic_source=rss
- Topics: Elections, Government, Politics, World

## Key points

- DeSantis leaves office in January due to term limits.
- Florida has shifted from a swing state to a Republican stronghold.
- His record looms over the race between Byron Donalds and David Jolly.

## Summary

Governor Ron DeSantis has helped turn Florida from a competitive swing state into a Republican stronghold, and his record is shaping the contest to replace him in the 2026 midterm elections. As he prepares to leave office in January because of term limits, Republican candidate Byron Donalds is seeking to retain the governorship against a stronger-than-expected challenge from centrist Democrat David Jolly.

DeSantis narrowly won his first race in 2018, by less than half a percentage point, but secured re-election by 19 points in 2022, the largest margin in a Florida governor’s race since 1982. Donald Trump won Florida by 13.1 points in 2024, compared with 1.2 points in 2016, and Republicans now have a 1.5 million-voter registration advantage over Democrats, reversing a Democratic lead of at least 100,000 in 2020. Analysts say DeSantis’s policies and political legacy may have alienated some voters, leaving the election to test whether that is enough to shift the state.

---
Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.