The filing deadline for candidates running for Congress in Florida this year was June 17, 2022. One hundred and fifty-two candidates are running for Florida’s 28 U.S. House districts, including 58 Democrats and 94 Republicans. That’s 5.43 candidates per district, more than the 4.22 candidates per district in 2020 and the 3.86 in 2018.
Here are some other highlights from this year’s filings:
- This is the first election to take place under new district lines following the 2020 census, which resulted in Florida gaining one U.S. House district.
- The 152 candidates running this year are a decade-high. One hundred and fourteen candidates ran in 2020, 104 in 2018, 100 in 2016, 75 in 2014, and 89 in 2012.
- A total of eight incumbents are running in districts different from the ones they currently represent.
- Two incumbents from different parties are running against each other in the 2nd district. Rep. Al Lawson (D), who represents the 5th district, is running against 2nd district incumbent Rep. Neal Dunn (R) in the general election.
- Four incumbents are not running for re-election. Rep. Charlie Crist (D), who represents the 13th district, is running for governor, and Rep. Val Demings (D), who represents the 10th district, is running for the U.S. Senate. Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D), who represents the 7th district, and Rep. Ted Deutch (D), who represents the 22nd district, are retiring.
- Six seats are open, including Crist’s, Demings’, and Murphy’s. The three remaining open seats are the 4th, the 15th, and the 23rd.
- Rep. John Rutherford (R), who represents the 4th district, is running in the 5th this year, and Rep. Scott Franklin (R), who represents the 15th district, is running in the 18th. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D), who represents the 23rd district, is running in the 25th.
- The six open seats this year are four more than in 2020, when two seats were open, and two more than in 2018, when four seats were open. Seven seats were open in 2016, and no seats were open in 2014.
- Sixteen candidates—10 Democrats and six Republicans—are running to replace Demings in the 10th district, the most candidates running for a seat this year.
- There are 38 contested primaries this year, a decade-high. That’s nine more than in 2020, when there were 29 contested primaries, and seven more than in 2018, when there were 31 contested primaries.
- Fourteen of the contested primaries are Democratic primaries. That’s four more than in 2020, when there were ten contested Democratic primaries, and five fewer than in 2018, when there were 19.
- Twenty-four of the contested primaries are Republican primaries. That number, a decade-high, is five more than in 2020, when there were 19 contested Republican primaries, and 12 more than in 2018, when there were 12.
- There are 17 incumbents in contested primaries this year, also a decade-high. That number is seven more than in 2020, when ten incumbents faced contested primaries, and six more than in 2018, when 11 incumbents did.
- Six incumbents face no primary challengers this year.
- Three seats—the 5th, the 6th, and the 18th districts—are guaranteed to Republicans because no Democrats filed. No seats are guaranteed to Democrats because no Republicans filed.
Florida is holding its primaries on August 23. In Florida, the winner of a primary election is the candidate who receives the greatest number of votes, even if he or she does not win an outright majority of votes cast.Additional reading:
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