Florida has a substantial conservative population, as I’ve heard “the more north you go (in florida) the more Southern it gets” i.e. the south of florida is blue but the northern part is very red.

That's true. Outside of major cities, the "rural" population in Florida is very conservative/red. You can check the historical county maps over the past like 40-50 years and see it. Sometimes there is shocking changes (like Duval going "blue" this election) but generally Florida hasn't super-changed in demographics/voting blocks over the years.

I think the reason the $15 minimum wage passed for Florida is (from what I've heard) that it goes $15 gradually and then stops to where it's like $.05 increase per year based on cost of living, to where the conservatives would be like "ok, fine. You can have your $15 over the years but you can't get a 'living' wage out of it" and voted for it because it was "palatable" for them.