Early voting is underway as Floridians decide nominees for key races, including the race for governor.
As of Monday, 934,558 Florida residents have cast their vote either at the polls or through mail-in ballots, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
Democrats have cast more mail-in ballots but Republicans lead the way with early in-person voting. A total of 759,992 mail-in ballots have been received. Of those, 337,834 were Democrat ballots and 294,742 were Republican ballots. Another 13,822 ballots were categorized as “other” and 113,594 had no party affiliation.
Meanwhile, 174,566 people have shown up in-person to vote early at the polls – 97,391 Republicans and 63,691 Democrats along with 1,592 “other” and 11,892 with no party affiliation.
The primary will be the decider for who ends up on the final ballot in November in the races for governor and U.S. Senate.
The governor’s race has a crowd of 12 Republicans vying for the role.
Jay Collins is the current Lieutenant Governor of Florida appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year. He also served in the Florida Senate from 2022 to 2025.
Byron Donalds, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump, is serving in the U.S. House and was first elected in 2020. Before that he served in the Florida House.
James Fishback worked with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and is the founder of an investment firm and a nonprofit.
Paul Renner also spent time serving in the Florida House of Representatives from 2015 to 2024 and was speaker of the House for his last two years.
Other gubernatorial candidates include Jim Holcomb, Arthur McCaffrey, Daniel Nokovich, William Reicherter, Rachel Rodriquez, James Shaw, Caneste Succe and Bobby Williams Jr.
Another hotly contested race is for the congressional seat in Florida’s 19th Congressional District that will be left vacant by Byron Donalds’ run for governor. Ten Republican candidates are seeking the seat.
Madison Cawthorn previously represented North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District.
Chris Collins represented New York’s 27th Congressional District from 2013 to 2019.
Ola Hawatmeh is a former policy advisor to a representative in Indiana and had a previous failed run in New York.
Catalina Lauf is the founder of Defense of Freedom PAC and has two previous runs for congress in Illinois.
Jim Oberweis previously served in the Illinois Senate from 2013 to 2021 and has several unsuccessful runs under his belt in Illinois.
Jim Schwartzel, John Strand, Greg Bukowski, Mike Pedersen, and Linda Sawyer are also running.
The Democratic primary has five candidates with their eyes on Florida’s 20th Congressional District seat.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz currently serves in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Florida’s 25th Congressional District. That term ends in January.
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is running to reclaim her old seat after resigning from Congress earlier this year right before a House Ethics Committee meeting that might have chosen to expel her over ethics concerns.
Former football coach and businessman Luther Campbell is running, as well as Dale Holness, and Elijah Manley.
The primary election takes place on Aug. 18.
