Florida is expected to be a swing state once again.
According to The Washington Post, the state is divided into six “political states” made up of 22 million people.
Florida’s diverse population is made up of retirees, people fleeing high taxes in the Northeast and a mix of others, the newspaper reports. And as more people head to the Sunshine State, the political leaning of the state is always up for grabs.
According to the Post, areas of the state that are primarily Democrat have become more so as suburbanites shift away from the GOP, while more conservative areas have attracted more conservative Democrats.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton outperformed former President Barack Obama in South Florida. But President Donald Trump won Jacksonville, the Panhandle, North Central Florida and the Red South region of the state. Clinton won South Florida and the I-4 region, which includes Orlando.
Democrats did not perform as well in South Florida during the midterms, which allowed the GOP to make more gains in conservative regions of the state.
In the upcoming election, there are hundreds of thousands of potential voters who aren’t registered to vote yet or who are trying to get their voting rights restored. According to the newspaper, picking up new voters could be a key to winning the state. Trump beat Clinton by attracting new white voters. He has also made Mar-a-Lago into his Florida “White House.”
A majority of the state’s electorate lives in South Florida, Orlando, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville areas.
Since 2016, the GOP has added 314,941 new voters to the party’s rolls while the Democrats have only added 227,961 new voters.
According to the newspaper’s analysis, the biggest cities have become bluer while the rural counties and reliably red cities have backed Trump consistently.