Creating a law at the state level in Florida is a long but mildly simple process. To paint a complete picture, we must start at the beginning of the political process—you!

Picking Your Party

There are numerous political parties in the United States (and, in this case, Florida), but two dominate the political landscape: the Republicans and the Democrats. While voters can affiliate with any party, there are significant advantages to aligning with one of these major parties, mainly the ability to vote in Primaries.

Primaries are elections held before the general election (i.e., the big vote on Election Day), where members of each party select their champion candidate. This process is crucial because you can choose which candidate will represent your party in the general election. The primary is when you decide which of these candidates will proceed to the general election against the other political parties. 

For example, suppose there are three Democratic candidates, one heavily funded by oil and gas industries and two supported by grassroots movements. Depending on your values, the candidate’s electability, policy alignment, etc., you may favor one of these candidates over the others.

The candidate chosen in the primary sets the political agenda or mood for the general election. Consider the difference between Biden’s and Obama’s candidacy. 

Thus, the primary elections serve as a pivotal moment where voters can shape the political direction of their party by deciding which candidates move forward. Florida uses a closed primary system, meaning you can only vote for the people associated with your specific party during the primary. Given that there are limited non-democrats or republicans, usually, the other parties can only vote on nonpartisan (meaning not party-affiliated) races. These are traditionally judges, school boards, county commissioners, etc.

Why are there only two major parties? That is outside the scope of this article. However, the short answer is that we have a system where the candidate with the most votes wins. There is little incentive to vote for a candidate from a third party with almost no chance of winning or even move to a run-off. A result of this system of electing officials is that money has come to play a significant role in our politics. Candidates affiliated with a major party commonly get their party’s support and funding. It also signals to the world a candidate’s values at a glance.

Visit RegistertoVoteFlorida.gov to register to vote or update your existing voter record.

Elections

We have already covered the Primaries and General elections. However, it is worth underscoring that YOU MUST VOTE. It is honestly embarrassing how few people vote. Where I live in Orange County, FL, only 138,980 people voted in the 2024 primary. For the general election, 614,320 total people voted. Only 4.8% of active voters participated in the primary. There were 837,235 registered voters in Orange County. 

Election	Number of Votes	% of Total Voters
Total Voters	837,235 (January 10, 2025)	–
Primary	138,980	16.60%
General	614,320	73.37%

Primary and General Turnout vs Total Voters Nov 2024 in Orange County, FL

Low voter turnout in primaries is also due to the growing number of people who identify as independent, not aligning with any political party. If a voter does not register with a political party, that voter can NOT vote in any primary run by the major political parties. With such a low primary turnout, there’s little room to complain about the candidate choices in the general election.

When creating a bill at the Florida state level, voters choose three key candidates: a Florida House Representative plus a Florida Senator (not to be too confused with a US House Representative and US Senators) and a Governor.

You also vote for county commissioners and city commissioners if you live in a city. These office-holders pass ordinances, which are local laws. City and county elections might not coincide with the state’s major primary and general elections, so check these dates to ensure your voice is heard in local governance. How ordinances are created will be a separate article.

Visit dos.elections.myflorida.com/calendar to see all upcoming local elections.

Running for Office

As mentioned, the representatives you elect in Primaries and General elections start with your choice. It’s worth noting that YOU CAN RUN FOR OFFICE (and please do!). Commonly, elections are run unopposed. For example, in Florida’s city of Ocoee, the District 2 commissioner (2025) will see Rosemary Wilsen (R) win by default, and in Winter Park, Warren Lindsey (D) will take the District 4 commissioner seat (2025) unopposed. Unopposed commissioners are a problem because they have significant influence over your daily life. It’s vital to encourage individuals who represent you, or even yourself, to run for these positions, not just a default winner.

Running for office isn’t overly complicated. You can Google “running for office in for ___,” and there will be a lot of information. Usually, you can connect with a political party or a support group to ensure you file the correct paperwork by various deadlines. There are two ways to qualify: by gathering petitions or paying a fee. Most candidates pay the fee due to the amount of signatures needed and how hard it is to collect them. However, gathering signatures can get your name out there and allow for face time with voters. Be emotionally prepared to pay the fee; if it’s a partisan race, sometimes the party might cover it if you cannot afford it.

Influencing Your Representative

Building a rapport with your representative is essential so they may introduce the bills you propose. You can look up your representative and senator on flhouse.gov and flsenate.gov. Engage with them at town halls, meet-ups, or fundraisers. Discuss what matters to you, and consider sending them proposed legislation. Always be friendly.

If you’re not well-acquainted with your representatives or don’t like them, another approach is to connect with their aides. You can do this by attending events, showing up at their office, or calling. Remember to be friendly and thank both aides and representatives for their time.

Representatives generally prefer to hear from you in this order, though each representative is different:

• Volunteering: Provides significant informal time with your representative.
• Town halls, meet-ups, etc.: A more relaxed setting where you might only get a few minutes, but it’s face-to-face time.
• Delegation meetings: You can speak directly about your concerns. Typically, a speaker receives 1-3 minutes.
• Phone call: You’ll likely talk to an aide who will note your message; this is most impactful for active legislation.
• Email: The least effective method due to the ease of sending generic messages.

Donating to a representative’s campaign and volunteering from the start can help build a strong relationship. Engaging in these various ways is crucial for establishing credibility and ensuring your voice is heard in legislative matters.

Introduction of a Bill

Each House and Senate representative can only realistically introduce a few bills each session; hence, building a relationship with your representative is important because they can only select a few bills. There is one General Session at the start of each year that runs for several months. However, the Governor can also call for additional special sessions when needed.

A bill must have a House and a Senate version to become a law. For an example, see H0435 & S0586, 2024. The language in the House and Senate versions is identical. 

After filing a bill, several actions must occur before it becomes law:

1. It has to be allocated to three committees in the House and Senate (allocated by the Speaker of the House & Senate President, respectively)
2. For each committee, it has to be scheduled by the committee chair.
3. It has to be voted on by a majority in three committees in the House and Senate (i.e., it has to pass six committees – though this is an oversimplification of the Inter-House Process). In each committee, the introducing representative or a proxy defends the bill in front of their peers. The public is welcome to speak at a committee to influence the vote. Note: The committees can modify the bill.
4. Once it passes all committees, it goes to the floor for all representatives to vote on (simple majority rules. Constitutional amendments require a supermajority.). Note: the bill can be modified during this time.
5. Conference Committee – If there’s a disagreement on the bill’s language between the House and Senate, a Conference Committee might be formed. This committee, containing members of the House and Senate, works to reconcile differences, creating a compromise version of the bill that both houses can agree upon.
6. Bill becomes “Enrolled” and is sent to the Governor – the Governor has seven days (if the Legislature is in session) or fifteen days (if the session has ended) to sign, veto, or allow it to become law without signature. “Fifteen days if session has ended” is a little deceiving and complicated but outside the scope of this article.
   1. Signing: If the Governor signs the bill, it becomes law.
   2. Veto: A veto sends the bill back to the Legislature, where a two-thirds vote in each chamber can override it, turning the bill into law despite the veto.
   3. No Action: If the Governor takes no action, the bill becomes law after the specified period.
7. Enactment – Upon becoming law, the bill is assigned a chapter number in the “Laws of Florida,” and its provisions are integrated into the “Florida Statutes” for the next annual update unless it includes a different effective date.

Many bills are dead on arrival because they won’t be assigned to committees (step 1) or aren’t put on the schedule for the committees to vote on the bill (step 2).

The Speaker of the House, the Senate President, and the committee chairs are all partisan, and hence, getting bills that are party-coded by the minor party are unlikely to be scheduled. In Florida, the party majority is Republican. The President and Speaker represent the majority, filling these positions with Republicans. They will prioritize scheduling bills that fit into the Republican agenda. Also, depending on the majority size, these committees will be filled with likely Republicans. Suppose a Democrat representative wants to have a bill passed. In that case, they either have to write the bill in a nonpartisan way or wait until their party has a majority (i.e., possibly after the next general election), which can take up to two years. In Florida, the elections for House and Senate happen at different times:

• House of Representatives: These are held every two years. All seats in the Florida House are up for election at the same time. Therefore, representatives serve two-year terms.
• Senate elections are staggered, with half of the seats elected every two years. Senators serve four-year terms, but because of the staggered elections, not all senators are up for election simultaneously. This means that half of the Senate seats will be contested in one election cycle, and the other half will be up for election in the next cycle.

Hence, the elections and your representatives make a difference in what bills are heard!

Office Type	Party	Count members
State House	Democrat	32
	Republican	87
State House Total		119
State Senate	Democrat	11
	Republican	29
State Senate Total		40

Florida Senate and House seats by party as of Jan 30, 2024.

Note: One House seat is vacant.

Lawsuits

Filing a lawsuit to block a bill under Constitutional or Procedural Challenges is possible. This method usually has a statute of limitations and is expensive.

Other Options

• Constitutional amendment via citizen initiative – In Florida, a citizen-led constitutional amendment requires gathering signatures of eight percent of the voters in the last presidential election (page 13) to get the law on the ballot. It then requires a super-majority (60% of voters) to approve making it law.  I don’t recommend this option unless there is heavy sponsorship and state-wide buy-in. 
• Local ordinances are laws applied on the county or city level. They are an excellent option for starting change, but Florida may have a preemption law that blocks them. The process for ordinances is quite different and requires a separate article.

Conclusion

While the road is long, following the creation of a bill in Florida isn’t overly complicated. Start participating in the system today!

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