Ron DeSantis Warns Floridians of ‘Outright Liberals Running as Republicans’ in the Sunshine State

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is warning of “outright liberals running as Republicans” in the Sunshine State as voter registration figures for Republicans continue to soar.

According to the latest update on the Florida Division of Elections, the Republican Party of Florida now has 5,635,743 registered voters. the Democrat Party has 4,437,884, resulting in a voter registration advantage for Republicans of nearly 1.2 million —  1,197,859 to be exact.

“Since you now need an ‘R’ by your name to get elected statewide and in most parts of Florida, the issue will be squishy politicians and even outright liberals running as ‘Republicans’ but, once elected, following their true beliefs and governing to the left,” DeSantis — who must leave office after this term due to term limits — warned Floridians.

“We are already seeing this and it will only get worse as the Democrat party continues to crater,” he added.

Indeed, Democrats actually had the advantage over Republicans when DeSantis first took office. The trend — of Republicans officially outnumbering Democrats in Florida — officially began in November 2021, and the figure has only continued to grow.

As Breitbart News has documented:

From that moment on, Republicans have only continued to expand their lead, toppling Democrats by more than 100,000 mere months later, in March 2022. That figure doubled to 200,000 in July, and in December 2022, the figure stood around 350,000. In February 2023,  Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 400,000 registered voters, and that figure swelled to 680,030 as of October 31, 2023, with Republicans having 5,153,695 voters to the Democrat party’s 4,473,665.

In August 2024, the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) announced that it hit the one-million-voter lead milestone, as Breitbart News reported at the time:

The Florida GOP announced the milestone, asserting that “Republican leadership cements Florida’s deep RED status” after years of elections with the status as a purple swing state. The press release attributed the historic achievement, in part, to “the strong leadership of President Donald J. Trump, Governor Ron DeSantis and key Republican officials,” including among those, “Attorney General Ashley Moody, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, House Speaker Paul Renner, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, Senate President-designate Ben Albritton, and Speaker-designate Danny Perez.”

Evan Power, chairman of the RPOF, said the success of Florida Republicans goes far beyond voter registration numbers.

“It’s about a vision to make Florida the beacon of freedom for the rest of the country,” he said in a statement, expressing gratitude.

While it remains unclear which Democrats will compete for the governor’s seat in the next election, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) is running for that position, praising DeSantis and his predecessor, now Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), for creating a conservative baseline in the Sunshine State.

“And so, now my job going forward is to take that, build upon it, and now let’s add in things around the financial industry of Florida,” Donalds told Breitbart News Daily.

“To be honest with you, the Democrats have really shot themselves in the foot. Have you seen like the CNN poll when it came out that the Democrat Party approval number is at the lowest that they’ve ever recorded in history, or in the last 100 years?” he asked.

“They’re like 29 percent in Florida. Our people know what conservative governance is. We’ve been doing this for 30 years in our state. Gov. DeSantis, he’s done a great job. Rick Scott before him, he did a great job. We’ve had great Republican leadership in Florida,” he continued.

“My job is to keep the trains going, keep the same policies in place, build on that, make Florida continue to be the best state in the country,” he added.

Casey DeSantis has also heavily hinted that she is considering a gubernatorial bid.

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” she said, addressing the rumors.

“You guys can read into that,” Gov. DeSantis told reporters.