The 2018 Florida gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect the next governor of Florida, alongside an election to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and other state and local elections. Incumbent two-term Republican governor Rick Scott was term-limited and could not run for a third term, and he successfully ran for Florida's Class I Senate seat.
Republican U.S. representative Ron DeSantis narrowly defeated Democratic mayor of Tallahassee Andrew Gillum for the governorship, in what some considered an upset. The candidate filing deadline was June 22, 2018, and primary elections were held on August 28. Florida uses a closed primary process, in which the selection of each party's candidates for a general election is limited to registered members of that party; Gillum won the Democratic primary and DeSantis the Republican primary.
The close margin mandated a machine recount, which had a deadline of November 15, 2018. After the recount was complete, DeSantis was certified as the winner. Gillum conceded on November 17. DeSantis's victory marked the sixth straight election in which Florida elected a Republican to the governorship, and the third in a row that neither candidate received over 50% of the vote. With a margin of 0.4%, this election was the closest race of the 2018 gubernatorial election cycle. Gillum became the first Democrat to win Duval County since 1986 and Seminole County since 1990, while DeSantis became the first Republican gubernatorial candidate to win Jefferson County since 1884.
Republican primary
Nominee
Ron DeSantis, U.S. representative from the 6th district
Eliminated in primary
Don Baldauf, contractor
Timothy Devine, candidate for governor of Florida in 2014
Bob Langford, attorney
John Joseph Mercadante, Republican National Committee official
Bruce Nathan, physical therapist and candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2016
Adam Putnam, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and former U.S. representative
Bob White, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida
Withdrawn
Issak Almaleh, notary
Frederick Buntin, incarcerated felon
Usha Jain, medical director
Jack Latvala, former Florida state senator
Armando Adames Rivas, banker
Angel Rivera, businessman, political strategist
Nathan Dale Wilson
Declined
Jeff Atwater, former chief financial officer of Florida
Pam Bondi, Florida Attorney General (endorsed Adam Putnam)
Richard Corcoran, Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives (endorsed Adam Putnam)
John Delaney, former mayor of Jacksonville
Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and candidate for president in 2008 and in 2016
Francis Rooney, U.S. representative
Marco Rubio, U.S. senator from Florida and candidate for president in 2016
Will Weatherford, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives
Endorsements
Polling
Results
Democratic primary
Nominee
Andrew Gillum, mayor of Tallahassee
Eliminated in primary
Gwen Graham, former U.S. representative and daughter of former U.S. senator and former governor Bob Graham
Jeff Greene, real estate billionaire and candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2010
Chris King, entrepreneur and founder of Elevation Financial Group
Philip Levine, former mayor of Miami Beach
Alex Lundmark, real estate agent
John Wetherbee, entrepreneur
Withdrew
Henry E. Davis, judge
Richard Paul Dembinsky, candidate for U.S. representative in 2016 and candidate for governor in 2006
Lucretia Fordyce, activist
Josue Larose, perennial candidate
Brooke Russell Locke Marx, notary
Louis McClanahan, plant operator
Declined
Bob Buckhorn, mayor of Tampa
Kathy Castor, U.S. representative (running for reelection)
Charlie Crist, U.S. representative, former governor of Florida, and nominee for governor in 2014 (running for reelection)
Buddy Dyer, mayor of Orlando
Rick Kriseman, mayor of St. Petersburg
John Morgan, lawyer and medical marijuana advocate
Patrick Murphy, former U.S. representative and nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2016
Bill Nelson, U.S. senator (running for reelection)
Jeremy Ring, former Florida state senator (running for CFO)
Jack Seiler, mayor of Fort Lauderdale
Endorsements
Polling
Results
Independent and third party candidates
Reform Party
Declared
Darcy Richardson, author and candidate for president in 2012
Libertarian Party
Withdrawn
Riquet Caballero, banker and Afro-Cuban activist (running for state representatives)
Randy Wiseman, former chair of the Lake County School Board, candidate for state representative in 2004, and candidate for mayor of Mount Dora in 2013
Constitution party
Withdrawn
Daniel P. Zutler, businessman and candidate for president in 2016
Independents
Declared
Ryan Christopher Foley, former emergency medical technician
Kyle "KC" Gibson, pastor
Bruce Stanley, environmental activist
Declined
Grant Hill, former professional basketball player
John Morgan, lawyer and medical marijuana advocate
Ellen Marie Wilds, JPO supervisor (became Kyle "KC" Gibson's running mate)
Endorsements
General election
Debates
First debate
The first debate moderated by CNN's Jake Tapper was hosted on October 21, 2018, at WEDU, Tampa, Florida. It was an hour long debate featuring topics like climate change, minimum wage, health care, gun control, the NRA, DeSantis's "monkey up" comment and President Donald Trump being a role model for children.
This debate was held a day before early voting started in Florida on October 22, 2018.
Second debate
The second debate occurred on October 24, 2018, and was hosted at Weston, Florida. It was moderated by Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association.
Endorsements
Predictions
Polling
Results
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
Duval (largest municipality: Jacksonville)
Seminole (largest municipality: Sanford)
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
Jefferson (largest city: Monticello)
Monroe (largest city: Key West)
Analysis
The close margin mandated a machine recount, which had a deadline of November 15, 2018. If the margin was below 0.25% after machine recount, Ken Detzner, the Secretary of State of Florida, would commission a manual recount of over-votes and under-votes. However, after the recount was complete, DeSantis' margin was 0.40%; therefore he was certified the winner. Gillum conceded on November 17.
On November 10, 2022, former president Donald Trump claimed on his Truth Social page that he had prematurely ended the recount to prevent DeSantis and Senate candidate Rick Scott from losing, under the unsubstantiated belief that ballots for them were being removed. Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried has asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate. Sarah Isgur, the spokeswoman of the Department of Justice from 2017 to 2019, has said that it "never happened," a position which was supported by other former Department of Justice officials. Broward County Commissioner Steven Geller has agreed that no interference took place.