Editing Orange County, Florida (section)

==Politics==
Orange County is located along the pivotal [[Interstate 4]] corridor, which until recently  was a powerful [[Swing state|swing region]] in what was one of the country's most critical swing states. Many close elections were won or lost depending on the voting outcome along the corridor. Voters were considered independent, traditionally splitting their votes, electing Democrats and Republicans on the same ballot. As a result of such independence, voters were inundated with non-stop television and radio ads months preceding a [[general election]].

Orange County was one of the first areas of Florida to turn Republican. It swung from a 15-point victory for [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in 1944 to a seven-point victory for [[Thomas E. Dewey]] in 1948. It eventually became one of the stronger Republican bastions in Florida, as evidenced when it gave [[Barry Goldwater]] 56 percent of its vote in 1964. For most of the second half of the 20th century, it was one of the more conservative urban counties in Florida and the nation. From 1948 to 1988, Democrats only cracked the 40 percent barrier twice, in 1964 and 1976. However, the Republican edge narrowed considerably in the 1990s. [[George H. W. Bush]] fell from 67 percent of the vote in 1988 to only 45.9 percent in 1992. In 1996, [[Bob Dole]] only won the county by 520 votes.

In September 2000,<ref>{{cite web|url = http://election.dos.state.fl.us/voter-registration/archives/2000/September/Monthly.pdf|title = Registration and Party Enrollment Statistics as of September 30, 2000|publisher = Florida Department of State |date=October 2000}}</ref> Democrats overtook Republicans in voter registration. This was a factor in [[Al Gore]] becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the county since 1944. [[John Kerry]] narrowly carried the county in 2004. In 2008, however, Orange County swung hard to [[Barack Obama]], who won it by the largest margin for a Democrat since Roosevelt. In the years since, it has become one of the strongest Democratic bastions in Florida.

Since 2000, Republicans have yet to retake the advantage they once enjoyed. In the twelve years that followed, Democrats experienced a modest increase in their voter registration percentage from 41.40% to 42.73% of the electorate. Minor party voters also had modest growth, increasing from 2.17% to 2.37%. In contrast, Republicans experienced a sharp decrease in registered voters, sliding from 40.95% in 2000 down to 29.85% in 2012. The beneficiary of the Republican losses have been unaffiliated voters. The percentage of the electorate identifying as an unaffiliated voter increased from 15.47% to 25.06% during this same period. Orange County is one of two different counties in the entire nation to have voted for Al Gore in 2000 after voting for Dole in 1996, a distinction it shares with [[Charles County, Maryland]].<ref>{{cite web|title = The 2016 Streak Breakers| date=October 6, 2016 |publisher = Sabato Crystal Ball|access-date = September 15, 2017|url = http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/the-2016-streak-breakers/}}</ref>

However, Orange County went to [[Kamala Harris]] by just 13 points in 2024, the closest margin in Orange County since 2004. This made Orange County one of just six Florida counties to go for Harris as [[Donald Trump]] won the former swing state of Florida by 13 points.<ref>https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/06/florida-counties-kamala-harris-won/76090180007/</ref><ref>https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/results/florida</ref> Florida is now considered a red state and presidential campaigns are unlikely to focus on the state in the future.<ref>https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4981681-florida-trump-republican-victory/</ref>

{{PresHead|place=Orange County, Florida|source=<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=November 13, 2020}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Democratic|258,279|340,807|10,521|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2020|Democratic|245,398|395,014|8,745|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2016|Democratic|195,216|329,894|26,792|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2012|Democratic|188,589|273,665|5,049|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2008|Democratic|186,832|273,009|3,198|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2004|Democratic|192,539|193,354|2,151|Florida}}
{{PresRow|2000|Democratic|134,531|140,236|5,388|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|106,059|105,539|19,528|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1992|Republican|108,788|82,683|45,540|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|117,237|54,023|1,510|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|122,068|48,752|165|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|87,454|48,767|6,998|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1976|Republican|70,451|58,442|1,544|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|94,516|23,840|421|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|50,874|22,548|27,247|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1964|Republican|48,884|38,248|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|48,244|19,729|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|37,482|14,532|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|29,813|12,141|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1948|Republican|11,971|10,063|3,618|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|8,826|12,008|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|8,198|12,821|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|4,394|7,314|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|3,522|4,877|0|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|6,524|2,616|175|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|1,653|1,883|572|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|1,447|2,035|186|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|415|1,261|81|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1912|Democratic|228|1,256|359|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1908|Democratic|485|952|172|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1904|Democratic|315|874|58|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1900|Democratic|402|857|126|Florida}}
{{PresRow|1896|Democratic|565|1,086|89|Florida}}
{{PresFoot|1892|Democratic|0|1,142|98|Florida}}

===Voter registration===
{| class=wikitable
! colspan = 6 | Registered active voters by party as of October 19, 2024<ref>{{cite web | title = Registration and Party Enrollment Statistics as of March 31, 2015 | publisher = Orange County Supervisor of Elections | format = PDF | access-date = April 14, 2014 | url = http://www.ocfelections.com/Public%20Records/2015%20ME%20Stats/March/March%202015.htm | archive-date = September 24, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150924054629/http://www.ocfelections.com/Public%20Records/2015%20ME%20Stats/March/March%202015.htm | url-status = dead }}</ref>
|-
! colspan = 2 | Party
! Total
! Percentage
|-
| {{party color cell|Democratic Party (United States)}}
| [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| align=center | 332,967
| align=center | 39.75%
|-
| {{party color cell|Republican Party (United States)}}
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| align=center | 224,915
| align=center | 26.85%
|-
| {{party color cell|Libertarian Party (United States)}}
| Minor parties
| align=center | 26,335
| align=center | 3.14%
|-
| {{party color cell|Independent Party (United States)}}
| Unaffiliated
| align=center | 253,508
| align=center | 30.26%
|-
! colspan = 2 | Total
! align=center | 837,725
! align=center | 100.00%
|}