The 2026 Florida gubernatorial election will take place on November 3, 2026, to elect the next governor of Florida, alongside other state and local elections. The primary elections will take place on August 18, 2026. Incumbent Republican governor Ron DeSantis is term-limited and cannot seek re-election to a third consecutive term.
Democrats have not won a gubernatorial election in Florida since Lawton Chiles was re-elected in 1994.
A heavily populated South Atlantic state with a large and increasingly conservative Latino American population and the northern parts lying in the Bible Belt, Florida is considered to be a moderately to strongly red state, having not elected a Democratic governor since 1994 nor a Democrat for president since 2012 and having moved significantly rightward in the last decade. In 2022, incumbent governor Ron DeSantis was re-elected by a 19.4% margin, a considerable improvement from his 0.4-point victory four years earlier in the gubernatorial election during the 2018 blue wave. This was followed two years later by Republican Donald Trump winning his adoptive home state by a 13% margin as he won a second non-consecutive presidential term, improving his 3.4% margin of victory in 2020 and seemingly diminishing Florida's longtime swing-state and bellwether status. Republicans also control all statewide offices, a large majority of the state's U.S. House delegation, both U.S. Senate seats, and supermajorities in both houses of the Florida Legislature.
Article IV, Section 5(b) of the Florida Constitution states that, for a person to serve as governor, they must:
Byron Donalds vs. Jerry Demings
Byron Donalds vs. David Jolly
Paul Renner vs. David Jolly
Byron Donalds vs. Daniella Levine Cava vs. Jason Pizzo<br />
Casey DeSantis vs. David Jolly<br />
Casey DeSantis vs. Jerry Demings<br />
Casey DeSantis vs. Daniella Levine Cava vs. Jason Pizzo<br />
Generic Republican vs. generic Democrat<br />
Partisan clients<br />
Official campaign websites