As a Florida resident prepares to retake the White House this month, here are the ways some of the areas in the South made headlines in 2024.

Florida – Red wedding for GOP opponents

Florida Republicans had a good year of cementing the Sunshine State’s status as a GOP stronghold.

While Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) presidential bid fizzled, leading him to drop out of the GOP primary last January, he got a major victory in his yearslong battle with Disney. The company’s federal court lawsuit was dismissed, while the governor-appointed board and House of Mouse came to a settlement. The fairy-tale ending has Disney looking to invest in the state, as the feud stemming from the 2022 Parental Rights in Education Act has come to its conclusion.

The Florida governor also saw victories in the failure of both ballot measures that sought to legalize recreational marijuana and enshrine abortion through viability. DeSantis and his state GOP allies had campaigned hard against both measures, which failed despite similar measures in other states largely passing.

The country’s most famous Florida resident, President-elect Donald Trump, also had a good year, handily winning Florida’s GOP primary and defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race in the Sunshine State — en route to Electoral College and popular vote victories nationally.

Trump won Florida over Harris, 56.1%-43%, winning by nearly 1.5 million votes. It was the largest victory in a presidential race in the state since George H.W. Bush in 1988 and proved Republicans’ sweeping 2022 victories in the state were not a fluke.

Democrats contended that the state would be “in play” at the presidential level, touting abortion on the ballot as something that could motivate Democratic voters, but instead, Harris and the abortion measure went down. At the state legislature level, the GOP maintained supermajorities, while no congressional Florida Republican incumbent at the federal level lost their reelection bid.

Trump also survived a second assassination attempt at his golf course in the Sunshine State, though the would-be assassin was thwarted before getting a direct line of sight of the president-elect, unlike the July assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which Trump suffered minor injuries.

Georgia – Trump’s reversal of fortune

Trump’s fortunes in Georgia were not peachy keen going into 2024, but at the end of the year, he likely has Georgia on his mind for positive reasons.

The president-elect entered the year facing a criminal case over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state, but that case quickly became derailed after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s relationship with Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor on the case, was revealed. Willis was originally allowed to stay on the case, but an appeal to the state’s appeals court held up the case for much of the year.

In December, the state appeals court ruled that Willis and her office were disqualified from the case, meaning another county district attorney’s office would have to agree to take it on — if it were to continue. The decision added further uncertainty to a case that already appeared to be doomed against Trump.

The president-elect also repaired his relationship with Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA), with the two appearing at a press conference in the Peach State after Hurricane Helene. The joint appearance was their first since the 2020 election, in which Trump was frustrated after Kemp stood by the state’s results, which showed a victory by President Joe Biden.

In the presidential election, Trump also had a reversal from four years ago, winning the important swing state. The president-elect defeated Harris 50.7%-48.5% after he narrowly lost the state in 2020.

North Carolina – Republicans maximize their fading supermajority

In the Tar Heel State, November’s election brought the end of a legislative supermajority that helped it pass laws without the consent of the Democratic governor, but Republicans maximized their supermajority while they had it.

The state legislature went a perfect 29-29 for veto overrides in the 2023-2024 legislative session, but the final veto override by the GOP supermajority made the most headlines.

The legislature had passed Senate Bill 382 during a special session after the November election. The bill included the transfer of $227 million in funds from the state’s savings to a fund for Hurricane Helene relief, but it also featured several other elements aimed at thwarting Democrats.

The bill would take appointment power for several state boards away from the governor, along with taking away various powers from the state superintendent of public instruction and state attorney general from siding against the state review board for charter school applications and the state legislature’s position on laws, respectively. Democrats will hold all of those offices this month.

Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) vetoed the legislation, but weeks later, the state House and state Senate overrode his veto, putting the bill into law.

“Western North Carolina small businesses and communities still wait for support from the legislature while Republicans make political power grabs the priority,” Cooper said in a statement after the veto was overridden. “Shameful.”

Republicans will still have significant majorities in both chambers for the next legislative session, but the state House will be just short of a supermajority. Democrat Josh Stein won the gubernatorial race in November, but unlike his predecessor, he will have an effective veto.

Washington, DC – Positive developments after a rough 2023

Washington, D.C., had a significantly better year in 2024 than in 2023. Going into the year, Washington was facing spiking crime, the prospect of losing the Washington Capitals and Wizards to Virginia, and a lot of heavy lifting needed to get the Washington Commanders back to the district.

Data from the Metropolitan Police Department at the end of the year, which haven’t been verified by the FBI yet, showed that violent crime compared to 2023 was down 35% year to year, while property crime was down 11% year to year. The drop in crime came after Washington officials passed new legislation aimed at combating crime at the beginning of the year, with improvement being shown in the year-to-year statistics.

The effort for a new arena in Alexandria, Virginia, also fell apart at the beginning of 2024, giving Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser a massive victory as she and the council approved a renovation of the existing Capital One Arena to keep the Capitals and Wizards in the district.

The year closed out with a Christmas gift from Congress: legislation giving Washington control over the former RFK Stadium land passed at the last minute.

The law means Washington now appears to be the favorite to land the Commanders’ new stadium and capped off a year of what Bowser called the district’s “comeback story.”

“This is a win for DC, for our region, and for America. Everybody loves a good comeback story — and that’s DC’s story,” Bowser said in a post on X.