Florida's 1st Congressional District election, 2024 (August 20 Republican primary)

	2026 → ← 2022
Florida's 1st Congressional District
	Democratic primary; Republican primary; General election
Election details
	Filing deadline: April 26, 2024
	Primary: August 20, 2024; General: November 5, 2024
How to vote
	Poll times: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Voting in Florida
Race ratings
	Cook Political Report: Solid Republican; DDHQ and The Hill: Safe Republican; Inside Elections: Solid Republican; Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican
Ballotpedia analysis
	U.S. Senate battlegrounds; U.S. House battlegrounds; Federal and state primary competitiveness; Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2024
See also
	Florida's 1st Congressional District; U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th • 11th • 12th • 13th • 14th • 15th • 16th • 17th • 18th • 19th • 20th • 21st • 22nd • 23rd • 24th • 25th • 26th • 27th • 28th; Florida elections, 2024; U.S. Congress elections, 2024; U.S. Senate elections, 2024; U.S. House elections, 2024; Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House racesArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House racesFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House racesOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House racesTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House racesVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House racesSubmit

Florida 2024 elections

U.S. Senate • U.S. House • State Senate • State House • Special state legislative • Supreme court • Appellate courts • State ballot measures • Local ballot measures • School boards • Municipal • Recalls • All other local • How to run for office

Incumbent Matt Gaetz (R) defeated Aaron Dimmock (R) in the Republican primary for Florida's 1st Congressional District on August 20, 2024. Former president Donald Trump (R) endorsed Gaetz in the primary, and former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R) endorsed Dimmock.^[1]^[2]

Gaetz, who was first elected to Congress in 2016, received national media attention in October 2023 when he filed a motion to remove McCarthy as Speaker of the House, which ultimately became the first successful motion to remove a House speaker in U.S. history. Gaetz was one of eight House Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy as Speaker.^[3]

In February 2024, Politico called Gaetz the biggest target in McCarthy allies' campaign to recruit primary challengers to run against the eight House Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy.^[4] In July 2024, The New York Times reported that a group connected to a top McCarthy ally had released a television ad attacking Gaetz.^[5]

Gaetz responded to McCarthy's endorsement of Dimmock saying, "I whooped Kevin McCarthy in Washington. I don’t think he’s going to fare better when I’m playing home-field advantage in North Florida.”^[2]

Before he was elected to Congress, Gaetz served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2010 to 2016 and worked as a lawyer. Gaetz said he supported America First policies, a term often associated with former President Trump and his platform. According to his official website, Gaetz's priorities included national security, veterans’ affairs, and adherence to constitutional principles.^[6]

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal shortly after announcing his re-election campaign in June 2024, Gaetz said, "I’m trying to reshape the House in my image,” and described that image as a Republican and a fighter who can "end the wars, shut the border, reduce the spending."^[7]

Dimmock, who served in the Navy and worked as a business consultant, described himself as pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, and pro-Trump. In an interview with Fox News, Dimmock said he was running because “The voters in District 1 deserve an alternative and I can bring that alternative, not just with my military service all around the globe but as a person of honor, integrity, and character."^[8]

Dimmock said he believed voters were "ready for someone to come in, to move away from the chaos that was started by Matt in the Republican Party, in Congress. And they're ready for an alternative option for change. Someone who's going to represent them duly up on the Hill."^[8]

Based on Q2 2024 reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Gaetz raised $5.4 million and spent $4.2 million and Dimmock raised $295,744 and spent $33,087. To review all the campaign finance figures in full detail, click here.

As of July 9, 2024, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Inside Elections with Nathan Gonzales rated the general election Solid Republican and Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball rated it Safe Republican. In the 2022 general election, Gaetz defeated Rebekah Jones (D) 67.9%-32.1%.

All 435 seats were up for election. At the time of the election, Republicans had a 220 to 212 majority with three vacancies.^[9] As of June 2024, 45 members of the U.S. House had announced they were not running for re-election. To read more about the U.S. House elections taking place this year, click here.

In the 2022 election in this district, the Republican candidate won 67.9%-32.1%. Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Donald Trump (R) would have defeated Joe Biden (D) 65.3%-33.0%.^[10]

This page focuses on Florida's 1st Congressional District Republican primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Democratic primary and the general election, see the following pages:

Candidates and election results

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 1

Incumbent Matt Gaetz defeated Aaron Dimmock in the Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 1 on August 20, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Matt Gaetz	72.6	70,824
	Aaron Dimmock	27.4	26,788

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 97,612
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Voting information

See also: Voting in Florida

Election information in Florida: Aug. 20, 2024, election.

What was the voter registration deadline?

In-person: July 22, 2024
By mail: Received by July 22, 2024
Online: July 22, 2024

Was absentee/mail-in voting available to all voters?

N/A

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot request deadline?

In-person: Aug. 8, 2024
By mail: Received by Aug. 8, 2024
Online: Aug. 8, 2024

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot return deadline?

In-person: Aug. 20, 2024
By mail: Received by Aug. 20, 2024

Was early voting available to all voters?

N/A

What were the early voting start and end dates?

Aug. 10, 2024 to Aug. 17, 2024

Were all voters required to present ID at the polls? If so, was a photo or non-photo ID required?

N/A

When were polls open on Election Day?

7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. (EST)

Candidate Comparison

Candidate profiles

This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.

Matt Gaetz

Party: Republican Party

Incumbent: Yes

Political Office:

U.S. House of Representatives, Florida District 1 (Assumed office: 2017)
Florida House of Representatives District 4 (2010-2016)

Biography: Gaetz received a bachelor's degree from Florida State University and a law degree from William and Mary law school. Before holding elected office, Gaetz was a lawyer at the Keefe, Anchors & Gordon law firm.

Key Messages

The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.

Gaetz highlighted his legislative record in the Florida House on his campaign website: "Matt led the effort to make Stand Your Ground even stronger, and sponsored and passed legislation creating a 50-year mandatory prison sentence for those who rape children, seniors, or the disabled. Matt’s “Timely Justice Act” streamlined frivolous death penalty appeals and tripled the rate of executions in the months after its passage."

Gaetz's campaign website said he supported cutting taxes both before and during his time in Congress, "During his first term in Congress, Matt helped pass the landmark Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which provided a much-deserved tax cut to millions of American families and businesses."

Gaetz's campaign website said he had a record of fighting for government transparency and defending former President Donald Trump, "Matt is also leading the fight to expose corruption in the FBI, the Justice Department, and the Clinton Foundation, regularly appearing on cable news to bring accountability to our government and defend the Trump administration."

Show sources

Sources: Matt Gaetz 2024 campaign website, "Meet Matt," accessed June 6, 2024; Matt Gaetz 2024 campaign website, "Meet Matt," accessed June 5, 2024 ; Matt Gaetz 2024 official website, "About," accessed June 5 2024

This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. House Florida District 1 in 2024.

Aaron Dimmock

Party: Republican Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Biography: Dimmock received a bachelor's degree from the United States Naval Academy and served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years. After retiring from the Navy, he went on to work as a leadership and character development facilitator and a business consultant.

Key Messages

The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.

Dimmock's campaign website said, "At the Naval Academy, Aaron built his life around the Navy’s core values listed in the official charter – Honor, Courage, and Commitment – and the highest ideals of duty, honor, and loyalty. These core values and ideals embody who Aaron is, the life he leads, and why he is running for Congress today."

Dimmock’s campaign website said one of his priorities was to “complete President Trump’s wall and stop the flow of illegal drugs and criminals into our country that have now become a crisis thanks to Joe Biden.”

Dimmock's campaign website highlighted his experience working as leadership and character development facilitator particularly with universities in Florida, professional sports teams, The Pat Tillman Foundation, and Ford Motor Company. He said he would use these leadership skills in Congress to “stop career politicians who are more interested in playing games than getting real results.”

Show sources

Sources: Aaron Dimmock 2024 campaign website, "About Aaron," accessed June 5, 2024 ; Aaron Dimmock 2024 campaign website, "Aaron's Priorities," accessed June 13, 2024; Aaron Dimmock 2024 campaign website, "About Aaron," accessed June 5, 2024

This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. House Florida District 1 in 2024.

Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses

Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

No candidate in this race completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign advertisements

This section includes a selection of up to three campaign advertisements per candidate released in this race, as well as links to candidates' YouTube, Vimeo, and/or Facebook video pages. If you are aware of other links that should be included, please email us.

Aaron Dimmock

Ballotpedia did not come across any campaign ads for Aaron Dimmock while conducting research on this election. If you are aware of any ads that should be included, please email us.

Matt Gaetz

My opponent Aaron Dimmock is a RAGING LIBERAL https://t.co/6pu5enT2qj pic.twitter.com/4paIWSJEqf
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) June 21, 2024

View more ads here:

Facebook

Endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

Ballotpedia researchers did not identify any candidate websites that provide endorsement information. If you are aware of a website that should be included, please email us.

Election competitiveness

Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.^[11] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."^[12] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.

The links below show polls for this race aggregated by FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics, where available. Click here to read about FiveThirtyEight's criteria for including polls in its aggregation.

FiveThirtyEight

Race Ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.^[13]
Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.^[14]^[15]^[16]

Race ratings: Florida's 1st Congressional District election, 2024
Race tracker	Race ratings
	November 5, 2024	October 29, 2024	October 22, 2024	October 15, 2024
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican
Decision Desk HQ and The Hill	Safe Republican	Safe Republican	Safe Republican	Safe Republican
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican	Solid Republican
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball	Safe Republican	Safe Republican	Safe Republican	Safe Republican
Note: Ballotpedia reviews external race ratings every week throughout the election season and posts weekly updates even if the media outlets have not revised their ratings during that week.

Election spending

Campaign finance

Name

Party

Receipts*

Disbursements**

Cash on hand

Date

Matt Gaetz

Republican Party

$6,772,979

$6,824,261

$518,153

As of December 31, 2024

Aaron Dimmock

Republican Party

$393,586

$310,705

$82,881

As of September 30, 2024

Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

Satellite spending

See also: Satellite spending

Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.^[17]^[18]^[19]

If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.

By candidate	By election
Matt Gaetz Aaron Dimmock	Open Secrets Federal Election Commission

District analysis

Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.

District map - A map of the district in place for the election.
Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2024 U.S. House elections in the state.
Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.

District map

Competitiveness
Presidential elections

State party control

Below was the map in use at the time of the election. Click the map below to enlarge it.

See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2024

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in Florida.

Florida U.S. House competitiveness, 2014-2024
Office	Districts/ offices	Seats	Open seats	Candidates	Possible primaries	Contested Democratic primaries	Contested Republican primaries	% of contested primaries	Incumbents in contested primaries	% of incumbents in contested primaries
2024	28	28	1	101	56	9	21	53.6%	15	55.6%
2022	28	28	6	151	56	14	24	67.9%	17	73.9%
2020	27	27	2	114	54	10	19	53.7%	10	40.0%
2018	27	27	4	104	54	19	12	57.4%	11	47.8%
2016	27	27	7	100	54	11	13	44.4%	9	47.4%
2014	27	27	0	75	54	5	10	27.8%	8	29.6%

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in Florida in 2024. Information below was calculated on May 7, 2024, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.

One hundred three candidates ran for Florida’s 28 U.S. House districts, including 42 Democrats and 61 Republicans. That’s 3.68 candidates per district, less than in the previous three election cycles. There were 5.43 candidates per district in 2022, 4.22 candidates per district in 2020, and 3.86 in 2018.

The 8th Congressional District was the only open district, meaning no incumbents filed to run. That’s the fewest open seats in Florida since 2014 when no seats were open. Incumbent Rep. Bill Posey (R-8th) did not run for re-election because he is retired from public office.

Seven candidates—incumbent Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-23rd) and six Republicans—ran for the 23rd Congressional District, the most candidates who ran for a seat in 2024.

Thirty primaries—nine Democratic and 21 Republican—were contested in 2024. Thirty-eight primaries were contested in 2022, 29 primaries were contested in 2020, and 31 primaries were contested in 2018.

Fifteen incumbents—two Democrats and 13 Republicans—were in contested primaries in Florida in 2024. That’s less than the 17 incumbents in contested primaries in 2022 but more than the 10 incumbents in contested primaries in 2020.

The 20th Congressional District is guaranteed to Democrats because no Republicans will appear on the ballot. Democrats filed to run in every congressional district, meaning none are guaranteed to Republicans.

Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2024 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+19. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 19 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Florida's 1st the 45th most Republican district nationally.^[20]

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2020 presidential election would have been in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

2020 presidential results in Florida's 1st based on 2024 district lines
Joe Biden	Donald Trump
33.0%	65.3%

Inside Elections Baselines

See also: Inside Elections

Inside Elections' Baseline is a figure that analyzes all federal and statewide election results from the district over the past four election cycles. The results are combined in an index estimating the strength of a typical Democratic or Republican candidate in the congressional district.^[21] The table below displays the Baseline data for this district.

Inside Elections Baseline for 2024
Democratic Baseline	Republican Baseline	Difference
29.1	69.7	D+40.6

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in Florida, 2020

Florida presidential election results (1900-2020)

17 Democratic wins
14 Republican wins

Year	1900	1904	1908	1912	1916	1920	1924	1928	1932	1936	1940	1944	1948	1952	1956	1960	1964	1968	1972	1976	1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	2016	2020
Winning Party	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	D	R	R	D	R	R	R	R	D	R	R	D	D	R	R

See also: Party control of Florida state government

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of Florida's congressional delegation as of May 2024.

Congressional Partisan Breakdown from Florida
Party	U.S. Senate	U.S. House	Total
Democratic	0	8	8
Republican	2	20	22
Independent	0	0	0
Vacancies	0	0	0
Total	2	28	30

State executive

The table below displays the officeholders in Florida's top four state executive offices as of May 2024.

State executive officials in Florida, May 2024
Office	Officeholder
Governor	Ron DeSantis
Lieutenant Governor	Jeanette Nuñez
Secretary of State	Cord Byrd
Attorney General	Ashley B. Moody

State legislature

Florida State Senate

Party		As of February 2024
	Democratic Party	12
	Republican Party	28
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		40

Florida House of Representatives

Party		As of February 2024
	Democratic Party	36
	Republican Party	84
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		120

Trifecta control

The table below shows the state's trifecta status from 1992 until the 2024 election.

Florida Party Control: 1992-2024
One year of a Democratic trifecta • Twenty-five years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
Governor	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	I	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
Senate	D	S	S	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
House	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

Election context

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in Florida in the 2024 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Florida, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2024
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
Florida	U.S. House	Ballot-qualified party	5,181^[22]	$10,440.00	4/26/2024	Source
Florida	U.S. House	Unaffiliated	5,181^[23]	$6,960.00	4/26/2024	Source

District election history

The section below details election results for this office in elections dating back to 2016.

2022

See also: Florida's 1st Congressional District election, 2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Florida District 1

Incumbent Matt Gaetz defeated Rebekah Jones in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 1 on November 8, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Matt Gaetz (R)	67.9	197,349
	Rebekah Jones (D)	32.1	93,467

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 290,816
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 1

Rebekah Jones defeated Margaret Schiller in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 1 on August 23, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Rebekah Jones	62.6	21,875
	Margaret Schiller	37.4	13,091

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 34,966
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.