Florida elections, 2010

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Elections were held in Florida on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Primary elections were held on August 24, 2010.

Florida State of the United States of America

Florida is the southernmost contiguous state in the United States. The state is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida. Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U.S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Miami metropolitan area is Florida's most populous urban area. Tallahassee is the state's capital.

A primary election is the process by which voters, either the general public or members of a political party, can indicate their preference for a candidate in an upcoming general election or by-election, thus narrowing the field of candidates.

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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]

Florida Panhandle northwest region of florida

The Florida Panhandle, an informal, unofficial term for the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida, is a strip of land roughly 200 miles (320 km) long and 50 to 100 miles wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is arbitrarily defined. The terms West Florida and Northwest Florida are today generally synonymous with the Panhandle, although historically West Florida was the name of a British colony (1763–1783), later a Spanish colony (1783–1821), both of which included modern-day Florida west of the Apalachicola River as well as portions of what are now Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Space Coast a region in the U.S. state of Florida

The Space Coast is a region in the U.S. state of Florida around the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. All of NASA-launched manned spaceflights have departed from either KSC or Cape Canaveral. The Air Force Station has also launched unmanned military and civilian rockets. Cities in the area include Titusville, Cocoa, Rockledge, Cape Canaveral, Merritt Island (unincorporated), Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, Indialantic, Palm Bay, and Viera (unincorporated). Most of the area lies within Brevard County. It is bounded on the south by the Treasure Coast, on the west and north by Central Florida, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean.

Federal

United States Senate

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.

Marco Rubio United States Senator from Florida

Marco Antonio Rubio is an American attorney and politician currently serving as the senior United States Senator from Florida. A Republican, Rubio previously served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Rubio unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2016, winning presidential primaries in the State of Minnesota, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Kendrick Meek American politician

Kendrick Brett Meek is an American politician who was the U.S. Representative for Florida's 17th congressional district from 2003 to 2011. He was the Democratic nominee in the 2010 Senate election for the seat of Mel Martinez, but he and independent candidate Charlie Crist lost in a three-way race to Republican Marco Rubio.

Charlie Crist politician

Charles Joseph Crist Jr. is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. Representative from Florida's 13th congressional district since 2017. He previously served as the 44th Governor of Florida, from 2007 to 2011.

United States House

All twenty-five of Florida's seats in the United States House of Representatives are up for election in 2010.

United States House of Representatives lower house of the United States Congress

The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they comprise the legislature of the United States.

State

Governor and Lieutenant Governor

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.

Rick Scott United States Senator from Florida

Richard Lynn Scott is an American businessman and politician, serving as the junior United States senator from Florida since 2019. He previously served as the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019.

Alex Sink American politician

Adelaide Alexander Sink is an American politician and financier. A member of the Democratic Party, Sink was the Chief Financial Officer for the state of Florida and treasurer on the board of trustees of the Florida State Board of Administration. She was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Florida and faced Republican nominee Rick Scott in the 2010 Florida gubernatorial election, losing to Scott by a 1% margin. Sink was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate in the special election, losing to Republican David Jolly on March 11, 2014, in a race to fill the vacancy created by the death in 2013 of U.S. Representative Bill Young.

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.

State House of Representatives

All 120 seats in the Florida House of Representatives are up for election in 2010.

Attorney General

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.

Ballot measures

Seven measures have been certified for the 2010 ballot.

Local

Many elections for county offices were also held on November 2, 2010.

Notes

  1. Cotterell, Bill (9 January 2011). "Democrats choose new party chairman". Melbourne, Florida: Florida Today. pp. 8B,5B.

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