Can Democrats crack a Republican supermajority in the Florida House?

It’s a goal the caucus must pull off or risk two more years in the Tallahassee wilderness.

Democrats need to net five seats in the Florida House of Representatives to break the Republican supermajority. Officials at the Florida House Democratic Campaign Committee (FHDCC) are confident they can do it.

“We’ve run the program we wanted to run,” said FHDCC Executive Director Drew Shannon. “We feel good about the candidates and we feel good about our chances.”

But the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee (FHRCC) believes they can mobilize voters and protect GOP incumbents. They also feel more Democrats may be as vulnerable as anyone in the majority.

“House campaigns, our incumbents and candidates have put in the work every day — and we believe that our mission to advance our vision of Florida as a beacon of freedom and prosperity is what will lead us to victory next month,” said Speaker-designate Daniel Perez, a Miami Republican.

Florida Politics spoke with analysts and consultants from both sides of the aisle about where they deployed resources, where voters seem eager for change and which incumbents appear especially weak. L2 Data voter registration information also revealed a little about where each party had made gains.

From there, we ranked the 10 House districts most likely to flip from one party control to another on Nov. 5.

1. HD 106: Fabián Basabe (R, incumbent) vs. Joe Saunders (D)

There’s been so much noise around Basabe since he flipped HD 106 by a razor-thin margin in 2022 — from fights with other pols to investigations of battery and sexual harassment that the House dismissed for lacking evidence — that it’s easy to overlook his legislative inefficacy.

To date, he’s successfully sponsored just one bill requiring better water provisions in labor pools. That many of the self-professed moderate Republican’s barely budging other proposals resembled things a Democrat would file didn’t matter; he voted in lockstep with his GOP colleagues on several “red meat” measures, including ones to further regulate LGBTQ instruction in schools and undo post-Parkland gun restrictions.

Saunders, a former Orlando Representative, has run a steady, strategic campaign in the coastal Miami-Dade district that voted for Joe Biden by a 10-point margin four years ago. Without having to say it, he’s offered voters a stark alternative: stoicism instead of histrionics and a progressive platform arguably more reflective of the district’s inclinations.

He has also outraised the incumbent without having to tap his own bank account while enjoying an added advantage of not having to get by a Primary opponent. Basabe handily won his Primary, but the fact that 38% of Republicans voted against him in August bolstered predictions of his ouster Nov. 5.

Also running is Saunders’ aunt, Mo Saunders Scott, a North Florida resident who mounted something of spite campaign against her nephew. She has no business running, and no chance of winning.

As of Aug. 20, there were 32,654 Democrats, 27,805 Republicans and 40,229 no-party and third-party voters in HD 106, according to the most recently available state voter data.

Basabe won two years ago by a 241-vote margin. Since then, L2 data shows the district has turned slightly redder, this year adding 1,852 Republican voters compared to 1,049 Democrats.

2. HD 45: Carolina Amesty (R, incumbent) vs. Leonard Spencer (D)

​​Even before her arrest on forgery charges, Amesty seemed a ripe target for Democrats. The Windermere Republican won her seat by 6 percentage points in 2022, but HD 45 voters broke for Biden by almost that margin two years prior.

Moreover, she effectively represents Disney but never represented the Mouse in the House. She stood by Gov. Ron DeSantis at the peak of his Disney wars, siding with the state leader against her district’s top employer. Now she’s running against Leonard, a former Disney executive who headed diversity initiatives for that Fortune 500 company and others. House Republicans hammered Leonard for his diversity, equity and inclusion advocacy, but blotted out the Disney brand when republishing his social media posts in mailers.

Problems truly stepped up for Amesty when a notary scandal resulted in a grand indictment on four felony charges. She maintains her innocence, but a trial won’t unfold until after the election. She has a $52,000 to $31,000 cash advantage on Leonard, but her signs aren’t papering the district like they were two years ago. Moreover, big TV buys in Central Florida by the FHRCC seem focused on protecting every seat but hers.

HD 45 had 41,771 Republican voters,