The politics of Florida reflect a state that has experienced conflict between its liberal southern region and its traditionally conservative northern region. Politics often revolve around budgeting and how money for budgets should be raised.

Florida was originally part of the Solid South, as Democrats overwhelmingly won state and federal elections during the hundred years following the Civil War. However, in 1937, the requirement to pay a poll tax was repealed by the state legislature, allowing poorer Floridians to vote, and coupled with a growing tourist industry in the mid-20th century that attracted Northern retirees, the state became electorally competitive earlier than the rest of the South. Since 1928, the state has only voted for the losing presidential candidate three times, all for losing Republicans in 1960, 1992, and 2020. In 1966, Claude Kirk was elected the first Republican governor of Florida since Reconstruction. This was followed in 1968, with Republicans winning a Senate seat in the state for the first time since Reconstruction.

The Florida Elections Commission was established in 1973. In 2005, Jeb Bush signed a bill to abolish primary runoff elections, resulting in all primary and general elections being determined by plurality rather than majority.

The state is dominated by Republicans on the state level, as Democrats have not held the governorship or either house of the legislature since 1999. Republicans currently have veto-proof majorities in both houses of the Florida legislature. However, the state has become increasingly red since the late 2010s, as in 2018, Republicans captured both Senate seats in the state for the first time since Reconstruction. In 2020, Florida voted 7.8 points right of the nation as a whole, the furthest it has voted from the nation since 1988, and it was the first election since 1992 that Florida backed the losing candidate. In 2022, Republicans won their largest statewide victories since Reconstruction and neared 60% of the vote. In 2021, registered Republicans surpassed Democrats for the first time in state history. Florida approved its lottery by amending the constitution in 1984. It approved slot machines in Broward and Miami- Dade County in 2004. It has disapproved casinos (outside of sovereign Seminole and Miccosukee tribal areas) three times: 1978, 1986, and 1994.

Republicans favor free-market policies supporting business and oppose increases to the minimum wage.

Republicans are generally opposed to a single-payer healthcare system, such as that found in Canada or in most of Europe. They also oppose the Affordable Care Act and the expansion of Medicaid under the Act.

Republicans oppose labor unions and have supported right-to-work legislation.

Most of the Republicans' national and state candidates oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, and transgender rights, favor capital punishment, and support gun ownership rights.

Republicans advocate for charter schools and school vouchers; many have denounced the performance of public schools.

Socially conservative Republicans support voluntary organized prayer in public schools and the inclusion of teaching creationism or intelligent design alongside evolution.