Florida 30 GOP electors tout Trump win
TALLAHASSEE --- In a more-celebratory mood than four years ago, Florida's 30 Republican electors on Tuesday cast their votes for President-elect Donald Trump.
Unlike in 2020, when Democrat Joe Biden won the presidency, the GOP electors didn't question the national results of this year's election or express hope Trump could find a way to overturn results in other states.
Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power, one of the 30 electors, said this year's election "went smooth," while calling Tuesday's vote a historic day putting the "47th president in office."
"There was a lot of frustration four years ago when we were not on the side of victory," Power said. "A lot of frustration with the election and the process. Now, people are just relieved that the four-year nightmare of Joe Biden and (Vice President) Kamala Harris is over. And we're going to put the president back in office."
Before the vote, Attorney General Ashley Moody, also an elector, called the Tuesday event a "celebration," as "we feel like this was a big win for the future president, right here in our home state."
State Sen. Randy Fine, a Brevard County Republican and elector who is running in a special election for a congressional seat, said before the vote that he thinks "Americans feel more hopeful now about our country than certainly they have for the last four years."
The Florida electors gathered on the same day that electors held similar meetings across the country to give Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance more than the 270 electoral votes they needed to defeat Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate.
The Trump-Vance team was lined up to receive 312 votes to 226 for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Trump won Florida's 30 electoral votes by beating Harris by more than 13 percentage points in the state. He also won Florida's electoral votes during his successful 2016 campaign and unsuccessful 2020 re-election bid.
This year's electors, made up of party stalwarts and elected officials, came from a list submitted by the Republican Party of Florida because Trump won the state.
Among other electors were state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis; Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson; state Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula; state House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami; state Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota; state Rep. Dean Black, R-Jacksonville; and State Board of Education Chairman Ben Gibson.
An alternate elector was called in as former state Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is Trump's selection to become U.S. attorney general, was unable to attend.
