The 2016 Florida Republican presidential primary was held on March 15, 2016, with 99 delegates being allocated on a winner-take-all basis.

Businessman Donald Trump scored a decisive victory in the state, defeating Senator Marco Rubio by nearly 20 points.

According to the New York Times, Mr. Trump "was able to appeal to voters with his message of economic populism and his hard line on immigration" in Florida.

He won a particularly large victory among those whose family financial situation was "falling behind", among those who called themselves "dissatisfied" or "angry" about the federal government, and among those who said they felt betrayed by Republican politicians.

As The New York Times described in its analysis of the primary results, Rubio "ran for president offering his youthful optimism and Cuban-American heritage as the embodiment of a new and more diverse generation of Republican leadership, but ultimately failed to galvanize voters in a much darker mood [...]"[3] Trump would later go on to win the nomination and then become the President of the United States.