Deep Dive · November 4, 2026

Florida Election Results 2026 Explained: Byron Donalds Wins Governor, Ashley Moody Holds Senate, Amendment 3 Passes

By the SFL Today team · Published November 4, 2026 · South Florida, FL

Election Day in Florida, November 3, 2026. The vote delivered the closest governor's race in a generation — and South Florida's three counties backed the losing side in both statewide races. Photo: Kateryna Hliznitsova via Unsplash.

The Florida election results of 2026 are in, and they tell two stories at once. Statewide, Republicans held every top office on Tuesday, November 3: Byron Donalds won the governor's race and Ashley Moody kept her U.S. Senate seat, both by single-digit margins, and voters approved the Amendment 3 property tax cut. In South Florida, though, Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach voters backed the Democratic candidates in the top races and returned a mostly Democratic congressional delegation. Here is what happened, what it means, and what changes first.

The results at a glance: governor and Senate

In the governor's race, Republican Byron Donalds defeated Democrat David Jolly with 4,132,112 votes to 4,024,180 — about 50% to 49% — with 99% of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press, which called the race for Donalds. Jolly and the Democrats led for much of Election Night before late returns from the conservative Panhandle put Donalds over the top, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

In the Senate special election, Republican Ashley Moody defeated Democrat Angie Nixon with 4,207,774 votes to 3,968,811, also with 99% of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press. Moody was appointed to the seat by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year to replace Marco Rubio after he became U.S. secretary of state, so this was her first election as a senator — and because it was a special election for the remainder of Rubio's term, she faces voters again in 2028, the Tallahassee Democrat notes. All results are unofficial until the state certifies them.

Why it matters: a historic win, by a whisker

Donalds made history: he becomes Florida's first Black governor and the first Black Republican elected governor of any state, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. His win is also the eighth consecutive Republican victory in a Florida governor's race, and Democrats have not won the Governor's Mansion since 1994.

But the margin is the story inside the story. Republicans went into Election Night with a more than 1.5 million-voter registration advantage over Democrats, yet both top races stayed within about two points, and the governor's race was decided by roughly 108,000 votes out of more than 8.2 million cast in that contest, per the AP counts. The Palm Beach Post reports President Donald Trump acknowledged the Florida races “were a lot closer” than expected, on a night his party lost ground nationally. Republicans also swept the state Cabinet races — Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson won re-election, and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Attorney General James Uthmeier won their first elections to posts they were appointed to — each in tighter than expected contests, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

South Florida voted the other way

The statewide result is not the South Florida result. Miami-Dade County, which backed Trump in 2024 for the first time in 36 years, “repudiated Florida Republicans, backing Jolly, Nixon and Democratic Cabinet candidates by big margins,” according to the Tallahassee Democrat. Palm Beach County — home to Trump's Mar-a-Lago — delivered its own rebuke: Democrats won two congressional districts that overlap Palm Beach County, both of them redrawn in the state's mid-decade redistricting to favor Republicans, according to the Palm Beach Post.

In the South Florida congressional races called by the AP, Democrat Oliver Gilbert won District 24 with about 81% of the vote, succeeding Rep. Frederica Wilson, who did not run again; Democrat Jared Moskowitz won the redrawn District 25 with about 51% over former Boca Raton mayor Scott Singer; and Republican Carlos Giménez held District 28 with about 53%, according to the USA Today / Miami Herald results report. Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz won the new District 20 in Broward, and Democrat Pia Dandiya won the open District 22 — which stretches from Palm Beach and Broward across to Collier County — with 51.9% to Casey Askar's 48.1%, becoming the first South Asian American to represent Florida in Congress, according to the Naples Daily News. Statewide, the congressional split stayed 20–8 Republican, far short of the four-seat flip Republicans had targeted when they redrew the map, the Tallahassee Democrat reports. One Miami race may not be settled: Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar was barely ahead of Democrat Eliott Rodriguez and headed toward a possible recount, according to the same report.

Amendment 3 passed: what South Florida homeowners get

The only amendment to pass was the one that hits wallets directly. Amendment 3 won about 62% of the vote, clearing the 60% supermajority a constitutional amendment needs, while Amendments 1 and 2 fell short of 60%, according to the Pensacola News Journal's statewide results report. Starting January 1, 2027, the homestead exemption on non-school property taxes rises from about $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, with inflation adjustments after that; school taxes do not change, and the annual assessment cap for non-homestead property — second homes, rentals, commercial buildings — drops from 10% to 5%, according to the analysis by Kaufman Rossin. Homeowners will see the change on their August 2027 TRIM notices and November 2027 tax bills.

Two catches matter in South Florida. First, how much you save depends on your home's assessed value and your city and county tax rates — the exemption shrinks the taxable value, it is not a flat rebate. Second, timing: the expanded exemption is built for people who are Florida permanent residents by December 31, 2026; newcomers who establish residency after that date wait until their fifth year for the larger amount, according to Kaufman Rossin's summary of the amendment text. And the flip side lands on local budgets: opponents warned during the campaign that removing billions in property tax revenue could push cities and counties in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade toward fee increases or service cuts — a fight that now moves to next summer's budget season, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

What's next

Results remain unofficial until certified, and the closest races — Salazar's in Miami among them — could still go to recount before the winners are final. Donalds begins a transition to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis, and he has already pointed past inauguration: he pledged to have the state's Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which meets next year for the first time in two decades, develop more property tax ballot measures for 2028, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. Moody, meanwhile, starts governing as an elected senator with her next race — 2028 — already on the calendar.

For South Florida, the practical dates come first: Amendment 3 takes effect January 1, 2027, homestead paperwork is due to your county property appraiser by March 1, 2027 for the 2027 bill, and the savings show up in the fall of 2027. Catch up on the week that led here with Monday's South Florida This Week: 5 Stories to Watch, November 2–8, and follow continuing coverage in the SFL Today news feed.