Florida's 1st Congressional District election, 2018

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General election
General election for U.S. House Florida District 1

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Matt Gaetz
Matt Gaetz (R)
 
67.1
 
216,189
Image of Jennifer Zimmerman
Jennifer Zimmerman (D) Candidate Connection
 
32.9
 
106,199

Total votes: 322,388
(100.00% precincts reporting)
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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2020
2016
Florida's 1st Congressional District
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Democratic primary
Republican primary
General election
Election details
Filing deadline: May 4, 2018
Primary: August 28, 2018
General: November 6, 2018

Pre-election incumbent:
Matt Gaetz (Republican)
How to vote
Poll times: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Voting in Florida
Race ratings
Cook Partisan Voter Index (2018): R+22
Cook Political Report: Solid Republican
Inside Elections: Solid Republican
Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds
U.S. House battlegrounds
Federal and state primary competitiveness
Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2018
See also
Florida's 1st Congressional District
U.S. Senate1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th9th10th11th12th13th14th15th16th17th18th19th20th21st22nd23rd24th25th26th27th
Florida elections, 2018
U.S. Congress elections, 2018
U.S. Senate elections, 2018
U.S. House elections, 2018

All U.S. congressional districts, including the 1st Congressional District of Florida, held elections in 2018.

Heading into the election the incumbent was Matt Gaetz (R), who was first elected in 2016.



Candidates and election results

General election

General election for U.S. House Florida District 1

Incumbent Matt Gaetz defeated Jennifer Zimmerman in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 1 on November 6, 2018.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Matt Gaetz
Matt Gaetz (R)
 
67.1
 
216,189
Image of Jennifer Zimmerman
Jennifer Zimmerman (D) Candidate Connection
 
32.9
 
106,199

Total votes: 322,388
(100.00% precincts reporting)
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 1

Jennifer Zimmerman defeated Phil Ehr in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 1 on August 28, 2018.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Jennifer Zimmerman
Jennifer Zimmerman Candidate Connection
 
60.5
 
22,422
Image of Phil Ehr
Phil Ehr Candidate Connection
 
39.5
 
14,650

Total votes: 37,072
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 1

Incumbent Matt Gaetz defeated Cris Dosev and John Mills in the Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 1 on August 28, 2018.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Matt Gaetz
Matt Gaetz
 
64.8
 
65,203
Image of Cris Dosev
Cris Dosev
 
30.2
 
30,433
Image of John Mills
John Mills
 
5.0
 
4,992

Total votes: 100,628
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

District analysis

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index
See also: FiveThirtyEight's elasticity scores

The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+22, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were 22 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Florida's 1st Congressional District the 28th most Republican nationally.[3]

FiveThirtyEight's September 2018 elasticity score for states and congressional districts measured "how sensitive it is to changes in the national political environment." This district's elasticity score was 0.95. This means that for every 1 point the national political mood moved toward a party, the district was expected to move 0.95 points toward that party.[4]

Endorsements

John Mills

Campaign finance

The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Name Party Receipts* Disbursements** Cash on hand Date
Matt Gaetz Republican Party $1,347,178 $1,264,157 $141,962 As of December 31, 2018
Jennifer Zimmerman Democratic Party $62,277 $65,474 $0 As of December 31, 2018

Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2018. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.


District history

2016

See also: Florida's 1st Congressional District election, 2016

Heading into the election, Ballotpedia rated this race as safely Republican. Incumbent Jeff Miller did not seek re-election in 2016. Matt Gaetz (R) defeated Steven Specht (D) in the general election on November 8, 2016. Gaetz defeated Brian Frazier, James Zumwalt, Rebekah Johansen Bydlak, Cris Dosev, Mark Wichern, and Greg Evers in the Republican primary on August 30, 2016.[6][7]

U.S. House, Florida District 1 General Election, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.pngMatt Gaetz 69.1% 255,107
     Democratic Steven Specht 30.9% 114,079
Total Votes 369,186
Source: Florida Division of Elections


U.S. House, Florida District 1 Republican Primary, 2016
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.pngMatt Gaetz 36.1% 35,689
Greg Evers 21.8% 21,540
Cris Dosev 20.9% 20,610
Rebekah Bydlak 7.8% 7,689
James Zumwalt 7.8% 7,660
Brian Frazier 3.9% 3,817
Mark Wichern 1.8% 1,798
Total Votes 98,803
Source: Florida Division of Elections

2014

See also: Florida's 1st Congressional District elections, 2014

The 1st Congressional District of Florida held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Jeff Miller (R) defeated James Bryan (D) and Mark Wichern (I) in the general election.

U.S. House, Florida District 1 General Election, 2014
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.pngJeff Miller Incumbent 70.1% 165,086
     Democratic James Bryan 23.4% 54,976
     Independent Mark Wichern 6.5% 15,281
Total Votes 235,343
Source: Florida Division of Elections

Pivot Counties

See also: Pivot Counties by state

Four of 67 Florida counties—6 percent—are Pivot Counties. Pivot Counties are counties that voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and for Donald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.

Counties won by Trump in 2016 and Obama in 2012 and 2008
County Trump margin of victory in 2016 Obama margin of victory in 2012 Obama margin of victory in 2008
Jefferson County, Florida 5.06% 1.75% 3.66%
Monroe County, Florida 6.82% 0.44% 4.90%
Pinellas County, Florida 1.11% 5.65% 8.25%
St. Lucie County, Florida 2.40% 7.86% 12.12%

In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump (R) won Florida with 49 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton (D) received 47.8 percent. Florida was considered a key battleground state in the 2016 general election. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, Florida voted Democratic 56.67 percent of the time and Republican 43.33 percent of the time. Florida went to the Republicans in 2000, 2004, and 2016, and it went to the Democrats in 2008 and 2012.

Presidential results by legislative district

The following table details results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections by state House districts in Florida. Click [show] to expand the table. The "Obama," "Romney," "Clinton," and "Trump" columns describe the percent of the vote each presidential candidate received in the district. The "2012 Margin" and "2016 Margin" columns describe the margin of victory between the two presidential candidates in those years. The "Party Control" column notes which party held that seat heading into the 2018 general election. Data on the results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections broken down by state legislative districts was compiled by Daily Kos.[8][9]

In 2012, Barack Obama (D) won 55 out of 120 state House districts in Florida with an average margin of victory of 29.1 points. In 2016, Hillary Clinton (D) won 54 out of 120 state House districts in Florida with an average margin of victory of 30.3 points. Clinton won 14 districts controlled by Republicans heading into the 2018 elections.
In 2012, Mitt Romney (R) won 65 out of 120 state House districts in Florida with an average margin of victory of 17.7 points. In 2016, Donald Trump (R) won 66 out of 120 state House districts in Florida with an average margin of victory of 21.1 points. Trump won two districts controlled by Democrats heading into the 2018 elections.


See also

Footnotes



Senators
Representatives
District 1
Vacant
District 2
Neal Dunn (R)
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
Vacant
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 13
Anna Luna (R)
District 14
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 18
District 19
District 20
District 21
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
District 26
District 27
District 28
Republican Party (20)
Democratic Party (8)
Vacancies (2)