Florida Republicans Deploy Millions in Campaign Cash to Protect Legislative Supermajorities

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Even as Republicans navigate difficult electoral conditions across the country, party leaders are leveraging their extensive donor networks to protect their commanding margins in the Florida Legislature. While the Republican hold on state governance remains robust, legislative leadership funds are pouring millions into key contests to fend off Democratic challengers hoping to dismantle the party’s supermajority standing.

Republicans have accumulated substantial campaign contributions from prominent Florida business interests and major political donors, including Miami hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin. Griffin alone has contributed $8 million during this election cycle to state GOP legislative leadership funds. Senate Republicans have directed more than $14 million toward television advertisements to support candidates in competitive districts across South Florida, Tampa, and central Florida, according to data from ad tracking service AdImpact. Meanwhile, House Republican leadership funds have dedicated financial resources to assist candidates with polling and staff infrastructure.

Candidates are confronting broad national pressures that include gas prices, international conflicts, and widespread economic anxiety. These dynamics have contributed to independent voters leaning toward Democratic candidates and generated projections that Republicans may not match the commanding turnout advantage they enjoyed during the previous two election cycles, including Gov. Ron DeSantis’s reelection victory by nearly 20 points.

Incoming House Speaker Sam Garrison, a Republican from Fleming Island, acknowledged the difficult political landscape. “We’ve got headwinds this cycle,” Garrison said. “That’s something we can’t control, but we can control the process we follow to make sure that we give our candidates the best chance to communicate directly to the voters and our candidates are working extraordinarily hard.”

The Florida Legislature comprises 160 seats. In the 40-member state Senate, Republicans currently hold 26 seats—one shy of a two-thirds supermajority—following the summer resignation of Bryan Avila, who was tapped by Rep. Byron Donalds to run for lieutenant governor. Gov. DeSantis has not yet scheduled a special election to fill that vacancy. Democrats hold 34 seats in the 120-member House and need a net gain of seven seats to break the supermajority in that chamber. Two House seats are currently held by Republicans who switched parties following the 2024 elections and are viewed as vulnerable to flipping back.

Additional House contests in the greater Tampa Bay area, Central Florida, and South Florida are drawing intense attention. These include the seat held by Miami Beach Republican Fabian Basabe, who over the summer lost a civil trial after two former male staffers alleged he sexually harassed them. Basabe has denied all wrongdoing and is appealing the verdict.

Breaking the four-year GOP supermajority, which has enabled Republicans to easily enact the bulk of their agenda, would grant Democrats a strategic mechanism to counter assertions that Florida has permanently shifted into a reliable Republican stronghold. Incoming House Democratic leader and state Rep. Christine Hunschofsky of Parkland emphasized the opposition’s objective. “We’re working hard in our program to chip away at the supermajority to make sure that people are heard more in this process and bringing some balance to government,” Hunschofsky said.

Both parties have dedicated hundreds of thousands of dollars to advertising in the race for House District 87, a district encompassing Mar-a-Lago, the home of President Donald Trump. Democratic state Rep. Emily Gregory captured the seat during a March special election, and she now faces a rematch against Republican Jon Maples. Gregory’s initial victory drew intense national focus, motivating the GOP to reclaim the district. Garrison confirmed the district’s high priority, noting that the party considers Maples a strong candidate and is ensuring he has adequate resources.

Republican messaging across these legislative races has consistently targeted Democrats over alleged ties to socialism, liberal policies, and opposition to placing Amendment 3—the state’s proposed property tax overhaul—on the November ballot. Conversely, while Democrats are being significantly outspent on television ad volume, they are campaigning on a platform centered on tackling the state’s affordability crisis. Hunschofsky noted that her party focused on recruiting candidates attuned to the economic pressures facing everyday residents.

The battle for the state Senate has proven similarly expensive. Two Miami Republican seats are contested alongside a competitive race in Senate District 10, a central Florida district that narrowly favored Donald Trump in 2024. Incumbent state Sen. Jason Brodeur, who took office in 2020, is running against Maitland Mayor John Lowndes. Brodeur has benefited from an ad featuring an on-camera endorsement from DeSantis, while Lowndes has faced a barrage of advertisements attacking his mayoral record and legal clients. Senate Republicans have also invested millions in an effort to recapture Senate District 14, the Tampa-centered seat that Democrats flipped earlier this year in a special election, which features a rematch between Brian Nathan and former state Rep. Josie Tomkow.

Incoming Senate President Jim Boyd did not return a request for comment regarding the Senate races, and a representative for the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee declined to comment.

State Sen. Tracie Davis, the incoming Senate Democratic leader from Jacksonville, strongly criticized the volume of negative Republican advertising. “Instead of running on their records, Republicans have spent millions of dollars trying to spread fear, hate and division because they know they can’t defend their corrupt, failed policies,” Davis said. “Democrats are going to break the supermajority in the Senate because our candidates are living the challenges of the people they’re running to serve unlike the politicians who are doing the bidding of the president or the Big Tech billionaires bankrolling Republican campaigns.”