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2026 is poised to be a vital election year for Florida and the nation alike, and as the year begins, the latest Florida Chamber poll finds Floridians maintaining a more positive outlook on Florida’s direction than the overall national direction.
The latest Florida Chamber statewide poll, conducted over the first ten days of 2026, finds Floridians continue to have confidence in the state’s overall direction. A 49% plurality of likely Florida voters say Florida is heading in the right direction, versus 44% who feel Florida is off on the wrong track. This is consistent with the previous Florida Chamber poll from October 2025, and with the long-term trend seen in Chamber polling of Floridians maintaining a more positive than negative outlook on Florida’s overall trajectory.
“If Florida was a stock I’d buy as much of it as I can, and it’s encouraging to continue to see Floridians having an optimistic outlook on Florida’s future,” said Mark Wilson, President and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. “As we conclude the Florida Chamber’s annual Legislative Fly-In, I am inspired by the number of business leaders and community stakeholders that continue to come together devoting their time, talent and resources to unify around the 2030 Blueprint and the solutions, data and strategy necessary to keep Florida’s nation-leading momentum.”
Compared with Florida voters’ views of the state’s direction, there remains more concern about the direction of the United States as a whole. 43% of those polled say America is heading in the right direction, while 51% say the country is off on the wrong track. These numbers are an improvement from the previous Florida Chamber statewide poll conducted during the midst of the federal government shutdown last fall, but they have yet to return to pre-shutdown levels of optimism.
Trump, DeSantis Job Performances Still Rated Favorably by Majority of Floridians
The Florida Chamber’s poll finds that job approvals for both President Donald Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis remain strong. A 52% majority of Florida voters approve of Governor DeSantis’ job performance, while 50% of Floridians polled approve of the performance of President Trump.
Support for Adult Personal Use of Marijuana Drops to New Low in Florida Chamber Polling
The Florida Chamber’s poll also found fewer Florida voters support legalizing recreational marijuana (51%), than a similar recreational marijuana legalization effort achieved at the ballot box in November 2024 (56%). This is the tenth consecutive poll from the Florida Chamber indicating this potential amendment remains short of the 60% threshold required for passage, and the lowest level of support for this proposed amendment seen in Florida Chamber polling over the past four years. The lack of support from Floridians over the past two years comes despite more than $200 million being spent to try and pass the amendment over the past two election cycles, over $197 million of which came from Florida’s largest medicinal marijuana provider. This failure to build momentum for the amendment in polling displays that the more voters learn about legalizing recreational marijuana, the less they like what they learn.
Historic Lawsuit Abuse Reform Remains Popular Among Florida Voters
In 2023, landmark lawsuit abuse reform was passed to address the frivolous litigation problem plaguing Florida. Two years later, Floridians continue to strongly support the lawsuit abuse reforms passed. Only 15% of voters polled believe lawsuit abuse reform passed in 2023 went too far, while nearly three times as many Floridians expressed support for additional efforts to reign in frivolous litigation in Florida. Amongst Republican and NPA voters more Floridians indicated a desire to see more done to rein in lawsuit abuse than the total combined number of those who felt enough or too much had been done.
Floridians Divided on Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) Benefits and Usage
As conversations and debates over the future of various forms of artificial intelligence (AI) continue to shape the future of a myriad of fields, the Florida Chamber’s latest poll finds voters in Florida divided on their perceptions of AI. When asked whether they view Artificial Intelligence as making things better or worse, 37% identified AI as making things better, while 38% view AI as making things worse. These findings were unchanged from the Florida Chamber’s previous statewide poll in October 2025.
A similar split within the Florida electorate was observed in how much voters are using existing AI options. When asked how often people use AI tools such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini, 51% of Floridians said they use such tools at least once a month, while 48% said they rarely or never use such tools. Most voters in Florida are sharply polarized on usage, as 42% of all Floridians said they use these tools at least once every week and 28% said they’ve never used any AI tools.
Generic Ballot in line with 2024 Election as Parties Enter 2026 Elections
As the critical 2026 election year kicks off, the Florida Chamber’s poll shows Republicans continuing to hold a lead amongst Florida voters, similar to the landslide victories seen for Republicans in 2022 and 2024. When asked which party voters are likely to support in November, 49% of Floridians indicated their vote would be for a Republican candidate compared to 41% who would support a generic Democratic candidate. Key voting blocs currently favoring Republicans over Democrats in the generic ballot include NPA voters by a 42-38% margin, and Hispanics by a 52-39% margin.
Republicans Continue to Dominate Voter Registration in Florida with a 1,465,828 Voter Registration Advantage
Republicans continued to expand their registration lead over Democrats since the last publicly released Florida Chamber poll. The most recent voter registration update from the Florida Division of Elections shows Republicans hold a statewide advantage of 1,465,828 active voters over Democrats. As of December 31, 2025, Florida had 5,509,698 registered Republicans compared to 4,043,870 registered Democrats and 3,787,292 registered as NPAs or members of minor parties. This gives Republicans a lead of 11% of all registered voters over Democrats in Florida. Since the 2022 general election, Republicans have increased their share of the active electorate in all 67 counties, while Democrats have lost registration share in all 67 counties over the same time period. In recent months, NPAs have also out-registered Democrats as the delta between the two groups continues to narrow.
Florida Chamber Voter Education and Recruiting Initiatives
Looking ahead to the November 2026 Election, the Florida Chamber will continue to lead the business community’s efforts to recruit and elect better candidates through the Florida Free Enterprise Fund, Florida Chamber Political Institute and the Florida Institute for Political Leadership. For more information about these initiatives, contact the Florida Chamber’s Executive Vice President of Government & Political Relations Frank Walker at fwalker@flchamber.com.
ABOUT THIS POLL: The Florida Chamber of Commerce political poll was conducted on January 2 – 10, 2026, by Cherry Communications during live telephone interviews of likely voters and has a margin of error of +/- 4 percent. The sample size included 209 Democrats, 266 Republicans and 127 others for a total of 602 respondents statewide.
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