2018 Florida gubernatorial election
Source Ranking As of
The Cook Political Report Tossup October 16 , 2018
Rothenberg Political Report Tilt D October 12 , 2018
Sabato 's Crystal Ball Lean D November 5 , 2018
Real Clear Politics Tossup October 25 , 2018
Daily Kos Tossup October 19 , 2018
Fox News Tossup October 19 , 2018
Politico Tossup October 19 , 2018
Governing Tossup October 2 , 2018
The Washington Post Tossup October 16 , 2018
FiveThirtyEight Likely D October 22 , 2018
General election -- Predictions
The 2018 Florida gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect the next governor of Florida, alongside an election to the U.S. Senate, elections to the U.S. House of Representatives and other state and local elections. Incumbent two-term Republican governor Rick Scott was term-limited and could not run for a third term. The candidate filing deadline for this gubernatorial race was on June 22, 2018, with primary elections being held on August 28, 2018. Florida uses a closed primary process, in which the selection of each party's candidates for a general election is limited to registered members of that party. Andrew Gillum won the Democratic primary and Ron DeSantis won the Republican primary. The close margin mandated a machine recount, which had a deadline of November 15, 2018. Ken Detzner, who has served as the 28th secretary of state of Florida since 2012, did not declare a manual recount. After the machine recount was completed, DeSantis was confirmed as the winner and Gillum conceded on November 17. DeSantis' victory marked the sixth straight election in which Florida elected a Republican governor.