--- title: No Clear Re-Election Path for Donald Trump Without Florida description: Florida has backed nearly every national winner in the presidential race since 1964. canonical: https://time.com/5903917/trump-florida/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-10-26T18:11:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:59.575Z article:section: Politics og:title: No Clear Re-Election Path for Donald Trump Without Florida og:description: Florida has backed nearly every national winner in the presidential race since 1964. og:url: https://time.com/5903917/trump-florida/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0021c5a771c6231/698a137c096a946bdb6a8c02/donald-trump-election-florida.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: DC Brief: Trump Florida og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: No Clear Re-Election Path for Donald Trump Without Florida twitter:description: Florida has backed nearly every national winner in the presidential race since 1964. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0021c5a771c6231/698a137c096a946bdb6a8c02/donald-trump-election-florida.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Without Florida, There’s Almost No Path for Donald Trump to Stay in the White House > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: The Final Presidential Debate Was Better. But Who Is Left to Convince? [Watch (HLS stream): The Final Presidential Debate Was Better. But Who Is Left to Convince?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/R5sLdPW4.m3u8) (6:14)  _Published 2020-10-23. After the nearly unintelligible shout-fest of 2020’s first presidential debate, the last match-up between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden felt like a throwback to something approaching normal._  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Oct 26, 2020 6:11 PM UTC  A person waves a Trump flag near a polling place in Vero Beach, Fla.,on Oct. 23, 2020. A person waves a Trump flag near a polling place in Vero Beach, Fla.,on Oct. 23, 2020. Saul Martinez—The New York Times/Redux  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Oct 26, 2020 6:11 PM UTC _This article is part of the The DC Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/newsletter%5Fopt-in?qs=3a19a0aa35903a2d9f214b74f69a37910b58de73cf3f2b89adc123fac024f0478c72f91010ae9d01f08f46c616068cab3e74726837cd2cce70dac3796e46c2b4) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox every weekday._ Twenty years ago, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and _Meet the Press_ moderator Tim Russert rightly surmised that the outcome of the 2000 presidential election would come down to one state: “Florida, Florida, Florida.” It was a phrase that [became](https://click.newsletters.time.com/?qs=6b45a5e3a004272fbdcb3eb5ce8e425bd5d55486c71ab4f1444fb0ea8438495789f31b95d0c86fd9c32b374a1632ec256059a562c3e135a2) meme-worthy before we even knew what that meant, and two decades later, it still holds true. There’s almost no plausible path to a second term for President Donald Trump without winning his adoptive home state. This week in the D.C. Brief, we’re going to take the temperature in several key states that will decide who wins the White House on Nov. 3\. Today, we begin in Florida, where voting is well underway and more than 5.6 million votes have been cast. Only once since 1964 has Florida not backed the national winner, so it’s not unreasonable to look at Florida as a kind of bellwether — a peculiar one, for sure, but one that cannot be ignored. This week, the polls show a tight race. Neither party feels they have it locked in, and the candidates and their supporters are looking for every last kernel of support in a state that is seldom a blow-out or an outlier. Had Hillary Clinton flipped 56,456 Trump backers to her cause in 2016, she would have carried the state four years ago. Florida Republicans recognize the [value of the state’s 29 electoral votes](https://time.com/5872673/donald-trump-campaign-florida-biden/) to any Trump retention of power. Right now, the Trump campaign isn’t talking about _not_ winning Florida. During an Oct. 19 call, campaign manager Bill Stepien said the campaign sees “multiple pathways” to get to 270 Electoral College votes, but said, “We’re going to win Florida.” Turn-out in Florida’s early-vote universe is already far-outpacing numbers seen in 2016 or 2018\. The coronavirus pandemic is partly to credit. So, too, is the intensity around the choices on the ballot. Some analysts estimate that as much as three-quarters of the state’s ballots will be completed and in elections offices when Election Day arrives. That could mean Florida offers the country its first full diagnosis of Trump’s prospects. If Florida reports its results early on Nov. 3, it could be a leading indicator of how the rest of the evening may proceed. Biden has other paths to the White House that don’t include Florida, but a Florida win would almost guarantee his win — by virtue of Trump’s loss. “If you bring Florida home, this thing’s over,” former President Barack Obama said on Saturday, appearing at a Biden event near Miami. “I won’t have to wait for the results. I want to go to sleep knowing we’re going to have a President fighting on our behalf.” Democrats have slightly boosted their early-vote numbers among Black, Hispanic and Asian voters in Florida, but the biggest jump over 2016’s numbers has been among white voters with a college degree, according to new [data](https://targetearly.targetsmart.com/) from the Democratic data firm TargetSmart. Conversely, Republicans have seen a drop-off among white voters without a college degree casting their ballots early. That would suggest a shift in Biden’s favor. Republicans [rightly](https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-politics-florida-elections-509ad83f6d40e08fb715da44548f62e0) point out that Florida is among the GOP’s best chances of holding even with Democrats in swing states. In Florida, Republicans are holding Democrats to a narrow 4-percentage-point advantage in early votes. In Pennsylvania, Republicans are trailing by almost 38 percentage points. In New Hampshire, it’s 22 percentage points. So just keeping it close is a win in their book, given so many of Trump’s supporters plan to vote in-person on Election Day. There are a few key demographics Republicans are banking on. Biden is [behind](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-trump-florida-georgia-north-carolina-opinion-poll-10-25-2020/) where Clinton was with Florida’s Latino voters when she ran four years ago, according to several polls, including the latest CBS News/YouGov survey, The same poll [found](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/25/polls-biden-florida-north-carolina-432265) most of Trump’s voters have yet to cast their votes, while most of Biden’s supporters said they had already banked their ballots. The incumbent enjoys a 9-percentage-point [lead](https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/10/25/florida-biden-and-trump-virtually-tied) over the former Vice President among those ages 65 and older, according to polling. It’s mighty tough to win Florida without seniors. Exit polls show Trump [carried](https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/exit-polls/florida/president) Florida seniors by 17 percentage points four years ago — or twice the advantage seen in polls today. In 2012, Mitt Romney [carried](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2012-election/florida/president/#.X5cBEFNKiRs) seniors by 17 percentage points, as well; he [lost](https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2012/results/states/florida.html) the state by less than a percentage point. Still, Florida and its [quirky](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/florida-political-geography/) political identities are unpredictable. Voters there are having the most broadcast dollars thrown at them in the country. Biden and his outside allies have spent $154 million in Florida alone to date, while Trump and his pals have spent more than $103 million. The massive, $257 million chunk of broadcasting may be making TV almost [unwatchable](https://www.npr.org/2020/10/13/923427969/presidential-campaign-tv-ad-spending-crosses-1-billion-mark-in-key-states), but with door-to-door campaigning almost entirely shelved by the Democrats and curtailed among Republicans, broadcast remains an effective method to get the messages to voters. For Trump, there is essentially no path to the White House without Florida. Biden doesn’t necessarily need it, but it could be a mighty strong roadblock. Even if Biden doesn’t carry the state, he will have depleted Trump’s campaign accounts and forced him to move energy from other swing states. We’ll talk about those in this space between now and Nov. 3. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the daily D.C. Brief newsletter._](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/politics?source=dc%5Farticle) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5903917/trump-florida/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5903917/trump-florida/"},"headline":"Without Florida, There’s Almost No Path for Donald Trump to Stay in the White House","datePublished":"2020-10-26T18:11:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:51:59.575Z","description":"Florida has backed nearly every national winner in the presidential race since 1964.","url":"https://time.com/5903917/trump-florida/","keywords":["The D.C. 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