The numbers are in and Democrats in Florida can already score a win: They got a higher lead on Republicans in the number of new registered voters statewide so far.
According to the Florida Secretary of State, Democrats added 17,000 more voters to the rolls than Republicans, compared to 2016, giving the blue party a 280,000 voter lead over the GOP. That’s higher than the 263,000 registration lead they had four years ago — and Donald Trump still took Florida.
These numbers are just for the March 17 presidential primary. Republican and Democrat clubs and activists across the state are still registering voters and will continue through at least October.
In July of last year, the Florida Democratic Party was averaging 28 voters a day statewide. Last month, the average was 482 a day. But they’re going to have to double their efforts if they are to reach the goal of another 150,000 new Dems before the state primary in August.
In Miami-Dade, there are 225,441 more voters than in February 2016.
Read related: Wanna vote in the March presidential primary? Tuesday is last day to register
Democrats kept their longtime numerical advantage, with growth in the last four years (93,468) that also outpaced the growth of new Republican voters (36,369). But new No Party Affiliation voters outpaced them both with 101,958 new registrations since 2016, according to statistics provided by the county’s elections department.
Democrats win, however, in the 18-25 age group in Miami-Dade, where there are 10,442 new blue voters, while only 3,075 registered and 6,749 new NPAs.
Among Hispanic females, there were more than three times new Democrat and NPA registrations — 33,415 and 33,229, respectively — than Republican registrations, which were 10,056. Among Hispanic males, far more of the new registered voters are NPA (28,544) than Democrats (19,985) and Republicans (14,551).
The trend seems to hold true throughout every demographic, even the all-important, high-performing 66 and up voters, of which there are 56,108 more across Miami-Dade so far. Of those, 26,482 registered Democrat, 11,358 registered GOP and 20,292 registered NPA.
Below, compare the breakdown of registered voters from 2016 and as of Feb. 18, 2020, the closing date for registrations for March 17.
By the way, early voting began on Monday and in two days, 5,377 voters in Miami-Dade have already cast ballot at 23 locations.