President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden were locked in a tight race in Florida, and it was too early for The Associated Press to call the perennial battleground state.
Florida has a history of close elections, including the state’s 2018 governor’s race, which went to a recount. The AP was waiting on more vote counts to come in from south Florida, including Miami-Dade County, the largest county in the state.
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Despite Democrats' prediction of a “blue wave” in the 2020 elections, Republican candidates appeared to make gains up and down the ticket, including in two closely watched South Florida congressional races where incumbent Democrats were poised to be ousted by GOP challengers.
The 2020 presidential election came amid a widening partisan divide, a once-in-a-century pandemic and a national reckoning over racial disparities, with Democrats calling the election a judgment on the Republican president’s incendiary rhetoric and Trump branding his opponents as “socialists.”
But heightened tensions on the political front only fueled Florida voters, resulting in unprecedented turnout for mail-in ballots and early voting before polls even opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday. More than 10 million voters, or about 75 percent, of Florida’s 14.4 million registered voters cast ballots in the election.
Tuesday’s in-person voting followed weeks of barnstorming in the Sunshine State by Trump, Biden and their surrogates as they vied for Florida’s 29 electoral votes, a key component of a White House victory for both candidates but considered essential for Trump’s re-election efforts.
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The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.