Live election results: DeSantis is Florida’s next governor, Scott leading Senate race
Florida voters turned out in droves for Tuesday’s midterm elections. And while many anticipated a “blue wave” of Democrats sweeping into office, Florida’s most high-profile races were led by Republicans — by very narrow margins.
Republican Ron DeSantis was elected Florida’s next governor by about one percentage point or nearly 80,000 votes over Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum.
DeSantis spoke to supporters at his campaign headquarters in Orlando. “Not bad for a kid who started out making $6 an hour,” he said. In the race, “I knew the only thing I could control was how hard I worked.”
Gillum conceded the race in Tallahassee. “We could not be prouder of the way we ran this race,” he said.
In the race for U.S. Senator, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, held 50 percent of the statewide vote compared to 49 percent for the incumbent Democrat, Bill Nelson. The race is too close to call.
In congressional races, Democrats flipped two seats in South Florida.
In the closely watched race for U.S. House of Representatives District 27, Democratic candidate and former University of Miami president, Donna Shalala, defeated the Republican candidate, Maria Elvira Salazar, a former anchor for Univision, by about six percentage points with more than 242,000 votes counted.
And U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, lost his seat to the Democratic challenger, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, in the race for U.S. House District 26. With more than 227,000 votes counted in Miami-Dade and Monroe, Mucarsel-Powell led Curbelo by about one percentage point or nearly 3,000 votes.
“This victory is for all of us,” Mucarsel-Powell told her supporters.
Republicans held U.S. House District 25, with incumbent Republican Mario Diaz-Balart defeating Democratic challenger Mary Barzee Flores. With more than 115,000 votes cast in that race, Diaz-Balart led Flores by about 23 percentage points.
“Well earned,” Diaz-Balart said upon hearing the results. Joined by his family and supporters at Hialeah Park Racing & Casino, he said he was eager to get back to work. “Now I’m ready to work tomorrow.”
In Miami-Dade, about 60 percent of voters approved a new soccer stadium and commercial complex for the David Beckham-backed venture with nearly 90,000 votes counted, or about 75 percent of precincts reporting.
Miami’s strong mayor referendum, however, was defeated, with about 64 percent of voters opposed after 86,000 votes counted or nearly 75 percent of precincts reporting.
In Miami Beach, voters strongly approved a new convention center hotel. With about 23,000 votes counted and 75 percent of precincts reporting, more than 64 percent of Miami Beach voters approved the referendum.
Most of the state constitutional amendments received the necessary 60 percent approval to pass, including amendments to limit property tax assessments, to give voters control of gambling in Florida, to restore voting rights to felons, to prohibit offshore oil and gas drilling and prohibit indoor vaping.
In the race for U.S. House District 23, which includes parts of Miami-Dade and Broward, incumbent Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz led the Republican challenger, Joseph “Joe” Kaufman by about 12 percentage points in Miami-Dade with more than 22,000 votes counted.
In Broward, Wasserman Schultz led Kaufman about 24 percentage points with more than 194,000 votes counted.
U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, a Democrat, led Republican challenger Nicolas Kimaz by about 27 percentage points in the race for District 22.
Voter enthusiasm was at a high for a midterm election.
After 6 p.m., Miami-Dade updated its Election Day turnout to about 220,000 voters. With at least an hour to go for in-person voting — polls close at 7 p.m., but anyone in line can still vote — and mail-in ballots still to be released from Tuesday’s batch, the county’s turnout is at 55 percent.
That’s being called a record for a midterm election in Miami-Dade. The last gubernatorial election, when incumbent Rick Scott beat Charlie Crist in 2014, had a 41 percent turnout in Miami-Dade. The highest since 2000 was the 2002 race that saw incumbent Jeb Bush beat Bill McBride. Turnout in Dade that November was 52 percent.
More than 550,000 people had voted early or cast ballots by mail when voting began Tuesday, bringing overall voting to about 743,000 people.
Despite high interest and turnout among voters in Miami-Dade, though, many voters appeared to have been confused and reported to the wrong polling places.
At Kendale Lakes Library, about 90 percent of voters were turned away and sent to their assigned polling places, causing frustration and leading many to say they would not cast a ballot after all.
Acacia Palomino, 80, was turned away from Kendale Lakes Library at 6:40pm after waiting in line to vote for 40 minutes with her daughter.
“We’ve received so many papers at our house, and none of them have told us where we are supposed to vote,” she said in Spanish. “At this hour what are we supposed to do? There’s not enough time to make it.”
At 6:45 two other mothers left the library running while tugging on their kids’ wrists. Both were clutching receipts directing them to their correct polling places.
Suzy Trutie, a deputy director of Miami-Dade’s Elections Department, said the agency doesn’t track how many people get turned away from polling places.
The growth of early voting has likely compounded the problem of people arriving at the wrong polling place on Election Day. The voters may have been confused because Kendale Lakes was an early-voting site open to any registered voter in the county during the two weeks of early voting that ended Sunday.
For two weeks before Election Day, Miami-Dade has used 28 sites for early voting. Each are open to any voter in the county, no matter where they live. That means people have seen friends, family members and co-workers vote there, and may assume they can do the same thing on Election Day.
But when the early-voting window ended Sunday, the vote-where-you-want rule ended, too.
This story was originally published November 6, 2018 at 7:00 PM.