The district is anchored in Pensacola and also includes the large military bedroom communities and tourist destinations of Navarre and Fort Walton Beach and stretches along the Emerald Coast.

It has continued to vote for Republicans by very wide margins, with the only exception being 1976, where Gerald Ford won a narrow 50–49 victory over Jimmy Carter.

Nonetheless, it usually continued to elect conservative Democrats at the state and local level, even in years when Republican presidential candidates won the district handily.

For example, Democratic incumbent Earl Hutto was unopposed for reelection in 1984 even as Ronald Reagan won the district with over 70 percent of the vote.

John McCain received 67% of the vote in this district in 2008, and Mitt Romney and Donald Trump respectively carried it by similar margins in 2012 and 2016.

The area comprising the 1st District has maintained a large military presence ever since John Quincy Adams persuaded Spain to sell Florida to the United States in 1819, in part to gain a deepwater port at Pensacola.

Pensacola Naval Air Station was the first Navy base devoted to the specific purpose of aviation, and is the home of the Blue Angels.