Elections were held in Florida on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Primary elections were held on August 24, 2010.
Florida had 4.6 million Democrats and 4 million Republicans. The latter outpolled Democrats among the 2.4 million independent voters and attracted conservative Democrats in cross-party voting. While running behind Republicans generally, the Democrats ran strongly in every urban area of the state. They lost by lopsided margins in the far Panhandle, Southwest Florida and the Space Coast.[1]
Main contenders for Florida's open Senate seat include Republican Marco Rubio, Democrat Kendrick Meek, and independent Charlie Crist, along with many other third-party and independent candidates.
Incumbent governor Charlie Crist did not run for re-election, choosing instead to run for election as senator (initially as a Republican, then later as an independent). In Florida, the governor and lieutenant governor run as a ticket.
Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Alex Sink won their respective party's primaries; Scott named Jennifer Carroll as his lieutenant-governor running mate while Sink named Rod Smith.
Scott would go on to win the general election by plurality, thus holding the seat for the GOP.
State Senate
Approximately one-half of the forty seats of the Florida Senate were up for election in 2010.
Republican Pam Bondi, Democrat Dan Gelber and independent Jim Lewis ran for Florida Attorney General, with Bondi winning the election.
Other state offices
The other state-level offices within the Florida Cabinet up for election were the chief financial officer and the commissioner of agriculture and consumer services. The Republican candidates (Jeff Atwater and Adam Putnam, respectively) won their elections.
Judicial positions
Multiple judicial positions will be up for election in 2010, including four justices of the Supreme Court of Florida.
