Live Updates: Get the latest on Florida election race results

The Miami Herald is keeping track of the latest news regarding local and state-wide election results, the campaigns, and other political news in South Florida and around the state. Check back for updates throughout the night. To catch up with what happened during the day, check out our running updates from various precincts around South Florida.

Trump wins Florida

12:35 a.m.: The Associated Press projected shortly after Tuesday turned into Wednesday that Donald Trump will win Florida and take the state’s 29 electoral college votes.

Here’s our breakdown of how that happened, including how Miami-Dade played a pivotal factor in the decision.

Trump leads Biden in Florida after winning over Hispanic voters in Miami-Dade County

Midnight: If Donald Trump loses the presidency, it probably won’t be Florida’s fault.

President Trump on Tuesday held a big lead in the nation’s biggest battleground state that put him in position to defeat Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the Sunshine State. With 11 million ballots counted late Tuesday, Trump was on track to win the state by a margin that, by Florida standards, was a blowout.

But the Associated Press said the race was still too close to call: “Trump and Biden are locked in a tight race in Florida, and it is too early for The Associated Press to call the perennial battleground state. Florida has a history of close elections, including the state’s 2018 governor’s race, which went to a recount. The AP is waiting on more vote count to come in in south Florida, including Miami-Dade County, the largest county in the state.”

Read the full story here.

State GOP protects vulnerable Senate seats and forces a recount in Miami

11:10 p.m.: Florida Republicans appeared to force Miami Democratic state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez into a recount Tuesday and fended off two fierce challenges to their narrow majority in the Florida Senate as a bitterly fought and expensive election cycle came to an end.

The Republican surge in Miami-Dade County that helped boost President Donald Trump’s margin in the state helped elect state House Rep. Ana Maria Rodriguez to Senate District 39 seat in South Miami-Dade and Monroe County, and Jason Brodeur, a Republican former state representative to Senate District 9 in Seminole and Volusia counties.

But the biggest surprise of the night was that Javier Rodriguez, who was first elected to the Senate four years ago, appeared headed for a recount against newcomer Ileana Garcia, a Republican who founded Latinas for Trump. With all precincts reporting at 10:30 p.m., Javier Rodriguez trailed Garcia by 110 votes, although the Miami-Dade elections officials said some vote-by-mail ballots were still uncounted.

Read the full story here.

Maria Elvira Salazar defeats Donna Shalala in Florida’s 27th Congressional District

11:05 p.m.: Republican Maria Elvira Salazar defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala in Florida’s 27th Congressional District in an upset that neither party anticipated heading into Election Day.

Salazar, a former TV journalist, won her race against one of Miami’s most well-known politicians by successfully tying Shalala to left-leaning Democrats like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist. She also hit Shalala repeatedly for failing to disclose stock trades while in office and characterized her as an out-of-touch millionaire who couldn’t connect with working class voters in the district.

Read the full story here.

Voters elect familiar faces, newcomers to local government in Miami-Dade

11:05 p.m.: While races for president, Congress and county mayor took top billing for Miami-Dade voters on Election Night, residents of more than a dozen municipalities also made their selections for who will represent them in their own backyards.

See the full breakdown of results here.

An update on Florida constitutional amendments

10:55 p.m.: An amendment to raise Florida’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026 was just barely ahead, according to returns Tuesday night.

Out of more nearly 10.4 million votes cast, and more than 90% of precincts reporting, barely more than 60% of voters said “yes” on the measure — too close for supporters or detractors to call.

Like all amendments on the ballot this year, Amendment 2 needs at least 60% of the vote to pass.

Read the full story here.

Three women elected to Miami School Board

10:45 p.m.: A majority of the Miami-Dade County School Board’s nine seats were up for grabs this year, and enthusiasm — and partisanship — surrounding the presidential election trickled down to the down-ballot races.

Now, three women will join the School Board.

Two incumbents whose seats were on the ballot, Steve Gallon and Lubby Navarro, stayed on. (Gallon faced no challengers and Navarro won a majority of votes in the primary.) That left three other seats on the ballot, and those incumbents said they would not seek another term.

Read the full story here.

Democrats suffer stinging defeats in FL state House races

10:37 p.m.: Florida Democrats suffered stinging defeats on Tuesday night, as Republicans trounced them in contested races that solidified the long-standing GOP majority in the Florida House of Representatives.

Republicans blocked Democrats from making any gains in the chamber despite investing $1.8 million to target voters with no party affiliation over the course of the election cycle and having outside progressive groups flood key races with millions of dollars that put the GOP on defense in areas across the state, including Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Read the full story here.

Florida Keys incumbents did well Tuesday

10:30 p.m.: Florida Keys voters came out in record numbers for the general election, with the Monroe County Supervisor of Elections reporting a turnout of at least 84%.

Incumbents did well — except one Democratic Monroe County Commissioner, Heather Carruthers, who is currently trailing Republican Eddie Martinez.

Read the full story here.

Florida’s 26th district: Carlos Gimenez defeats Debbie Mucarsel-Powell

10:18 p.m.: Republican Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez defeated Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in Florida’s 26th Congressional District on Tuesday night, a major victory for the GOP in Florida’s most competitive U.S. House race.

Gimenez, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, will head to Washington after winning his first partisan race in a political career that dates back to 2004. Gimenez’s victory shows that Republicans still have a strong base of voters in Miami’s western and southern suburbs.

Read the full story here.

Rodney Harris to succeed Oliver Gilbert as mayor of Miami Gardens

10:05 p.m.: With all 31 precincts counted, Miami Gardens Vice Mayor Rodney Harris bested Florida House Rep. Sharon Pritchett and will succeed the term-limited Mayor Oliver Gilbert, who won the race for the District 1 seat on the Miami-Dade County Commission in August.

Harris’ election begins a new chapter in the young city’s 17-year history. Miami Gardens’ first two mayors — Shirley Gibson and Gilbert — transformed the city into a thriving epicenter for Dade’s Black middle class. Continuing that economic prosperity was a big driver for many voters and a priority for Harris, along with public safety and helping children.

Read the full story here.

Miami-Dade rejects nonpartisan elections for county posts, approves 2 charter changes

10 p.m.: With most precincts reporting late Tuesday, the results showed Miami-Dade voters had rejected non-partisan elections for sheriff and other county posts set to become elected offices by the end of 2024.

The question was part of a proposed charter amendment that would rely on Florida’s changing state law to allow non-partisan elections for offices that fall under state jurisdiction. That includes three offices currently part of the county government run by Miami-Dade’s mayor: tax collector, elections supervisor and sheriff, though those powers are exercised by the county’s police director.

Read the full story here.

Recounts to happen in some Broward County municipal races

9:58 p.m.: Broward County Supervisor of Elections Peter Antonacci said there will be recounts in some municipal races in the county.

“We’re going to have a few recounts and it’s going to be snapped,” Antonacci said. “Because we know exactly where the ballots are, we’re going to know where to locate them and we’re going to know how to get them out and whether it’s going to be a machine recount or hand recount. Things are going to go very quickly because we know where everything is.”

Antonacci said the reason for this is due to Broward spending a lot of time making sure absentee and the early voting were all cataloged.

He did not provide specifics on how many recounts were expected but rather that there would be a couple in municipal races.

— JACQUELINE CHARLES

Wife of Parkland shooting victim joins school board

9:50 p.m.: Broward’s school board will now have a second member who lost a loved one in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Debra Hixon, whose husband, Chris, was killed, held a solid lead Tuesday night over opponent Jeff Holness. She will now join Lori Alhadeff, who lost her daughter Alyssa in the shooting, on the nine-member board.

Read the full story, with more Broward County election results, here.

Miami-Dade has elected its first woman as county mayor: Daniella Levine Cava

9:35 p.m.: Daniella Levine Cava was elected Miami-Dade mayor on Tuesday, the first woman to win the office and the victor in a campaign that upended the power of demographics in favor of partisan loyalty in a county where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans.

She’s the first candidate without Hispanic roots to win a county mayoral race since the early 1990s and the first Democrat since 2000. In two weeks, she replaces the current term-limited mayor, Carlos Gimenez, who has held the post for nine years.

Read the full story here.

Key Biscayne votes to spend $100 million to protect itself from sea level rise

9:25 p.m.: This election season in Key Biscayne, it all came down to a $100 million bond meant to help the vulnerable island community protect sinking property values in the face of rising seas.

On Election Night, voters appeared to have soundly approved the measure, which some critics called a “blank check.” They also selected three new council members, all of whom supported the bond, from a crowded field of 10 candidates.

Read the full story here.

Key West voters put limits on cruise ships but a legal battle looms

9:05 p.m.: By wide margins, Key West voters Tuesday approved three referendums to limit cruise ship traffic on the island by cutting the numbers of passengers that can hit the streets and banning larger ships from unloading at all.

Read the full story here.

Gregory Tony cruises to win as Broward County sheriff

8:55 p.m.: Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony, who survived a brutal Democratic August primary filled with personal attacks, coasted to victory Tuesday night against his Republican challenger in the state’s bluest county.

Tony, appointed to lead one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the southeastern U.S. by the governor after the state’s most deadly high school shooting , easily held off attorney and military veteran H. Wayne Clark. The sheriff campaigned on promises to continue to diversify leadership positions and clean up an agency that had been besieged with questionable uses of force by deputies, many of which were captured on public cellphone video cameras.

Read the full story here.

Analysis: Troubling early signs for Biden in Miami-Dade

8:10 p.m.: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden led President Donald Trump in Miami-Dade County by fewer than 10 percentage points as early in-person and a large chunk of vote-by-mail results were published around 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, a smaller margin than Democrats are hoping Biden will garner in Florida’s largest county.

In 2016, Trump overcame a strong showing by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in Miami-Dade to win Florida by 1.2%. Clinton dominated the county by 30 points and 290,000 votes.

Neither party expected Biden to perform as well as Clinton in Miami-Dade in 2020. But the question was whether Trump could cut into the size of Biden’s Miami-Dade win.

Read the full story here.

Early election results show Levine Cava ahead of Bovo in Miami-Dade mayor race

The first results posted in the Miami-Dade mayoral race showed Daniella Levine Cava holding a substantial lead over fellow county commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo Jr.

The county’s Elections Department posted tallies from mail-in balloting and early shortly after 7 p.m. Levine Cava was ahead, though the results did not include a significant portion of the votes cast in an election expected to bring record turnout thanks to the presidential contest between President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden.

Read the full story here.

Hardemon, Higgins, McGhee with early leads in Miami-Dade County commission races

7:55 p.m.: The initial wave of results from this year’s general election show Keon Hardemon, Eileen Higgins, Cindy Lerner and Kionne McGhee leading their opponents in four Miami-Dade County Commission races that will reshape the 13-member board that oversees one of the largest municipal governments in the Southeast.

Terms limits are forcing District 3 Commissioner Audrey Edmonson, District 7 Commissioner Xavier Suarez, and District 9 Commissioner Dennis Moss out of the office, leaving three seats wide open for a field of candidates that includes longtime politicians and community leaders. One incumbent is running for reelection.

Read the full story here.

Early Miami-Dade results are in

In Miami-Dade, all early votes and a good chunk of vote by mail has Biden up 54.15% over Trump, 45.20%. That’s counting 1,018,246 ballots, or just shy of two-thirds of the county’s total registered voters, as of 7:15 p.m.

Early Broward results are in

7:15 p.m.: As promised, Broward County’s unofficial elections results began rolling across a large projector screen inside a room at the Supervisor of Elections about a minute after polls closed at 7 pm.

“Oohs” and “aahs” permeated from lawyers and representatives of candidates who gathered inside.

The partial results were for 829,938 votes cast by mail and early voting.

Those results had former Vice President Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump by a huge margin.

— JACQUELINE CHARLES

Notable Election Day developments from earlier Tuesday

▪ Judge orders Election Day sweep for missing mail ballots, including in South Florida

▪ What’s voter turnout like on Election Day so far in South Florida? More than expected

▪ At a Hialeah polling place, dueling salsa music, taunts of ‘comunista,’ and shy voters

▪ ‘What might follow’ election keeps these Miami private school students home Wednesday

▪ Early votes have been counted. Who has the Florida advantage going into Election Day?