Florida gubernatorial election, 2002
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Election results by county
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The 2002 Florida gubernatorial election took place on 5 November 2002 for the post of Governor of Florida. Incumbent Republican governor Jeb Bush defeated Democratic candidate Bill McBride. Bush became the first Republican governor of Florida to win re-election to a second term.
Jeb Bush announced that he would run for re-election in June 2001 after first being elected in 1998. Bush was unopposed for the GOP nomination, and spent the summer amassing a war chest of over $5.6 million towards his re-election campaign.
In the Democratic primary Bill McBride, a lawyer from Tampa won a narrow upset victory over former United States Attorney General Janet Reno. State Senator Daryl Jones came in third.
Reno led throughout much of the campaign for the Democratic nomination, boasting name recognition and employing a grassroots strategy. In early June, she led McBride in the polls by a margin of 53%-25%, but trailed in a hypothetical head-to-head against Bush. Reno's primary campaign was dubbed the "Little red pickup truck tour", so-named because she toured the state in her 1999 Ford Ranger. Over the summer, her lead dwindled. McBride, backed by big money donors, was able to exploit Reno's paltry war chest, and sometime aloof campaign. Reno was also panned by many Democratic leaders for her connections to the Clinton Administration, and her handling of both the Waco siege and the Elián González affair. In the final few weeks, McBride narrowed the gap to a dead heat going into the September 10 primary. McBride won the nomination by less than 4,800 votes.
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