Florida Republicans fend off Democrats as state elects first black governor

Published4 November 2026, 05:02 GMT

Republican candidates in Florida have held off several high-profile challenges from Democrats, as results also saw the state elect its first black governor.

Republican Byron Donalds, backed by President Donald Trump, won the race for governor, while Republican Ashley Moody held her seat in the Senate.

She was up against Democrat Angie Nixon in the special election for Secretary of State Marco Rubio's old Senate seat.

The two wins came amid countless - and historic - gains by Democrats that gave them full control of the US House of Representatives and the Senate for the last years of Trump's presidency.

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Nixon had scored a surprise win in the Democratic primary to become her party's standard-bearer, although her campaign funding could not match Moody's, who came out on top.

Donalds had served in Congress since 2021 before running for governor to replace long-serving Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who was term limited and could not run again.

A big supporter of Trump, Donalds was at one point on the short list to be his running mate in 2024.

Born in Brooklyn, he moved to Florida for university and became a fixture in local politics before running for Congress.

Democrats in the state had some surprise wins, too. Republicans in Florida had helped redraw political voting maps as part of a national redistricting push to boost each political party's chances of taking seats in the House.

But in all three districts that were redrawn to help Republicans, Democrats held on to their seats.

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Florida

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