Republicans held onto to two House seats in special elections in Florida Tuesday evening aftercloser-than-expected contests, adding to the Republicans ‘ narrow majority.
Randy Fine, a right-wing senator in the state legislature, won the election to replace National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, who resigned the seat to take his post in the Trump administration.
Republican Jimmy Patronis easily won the seat in Florida’s first district vacated by former congressman Matt Gaetz. Gaetz resigned his seat when Trump nominated him to be attorney general, though Gaetz ultimately withdrew his nomination.
Patroni won the contest by 15 percentage points, 17 points less than Gaetz’s margin of victory last November.
Fine defeated Josh Weil, a Democrat who received a tidal wave of outside support from Democrats who hoped to turn the race into a referendum on President Donald Trump.
Fine’s race turned out to be much closer than expected in a district that voted for Trump by 30 points, and that had previously elected Ron DeSantis when he served in Congress. DeSantis and Fine had consistently clashed, with DeSantis warning that Fine would underperform.
As of Tuesday evening, Fine won the district by 14 points, easily beating Weil, but underperforming Trump’s performance in November by half.
Fine, who is Jewish and an ardent supporter of Israel, has garnered controversy, such as when he said that Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, both of whom are Muslim, “might consider leaving” before he arrived in Congress.
Trump had vocally backed Fine, as did Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk, who poured money into Fine’s campaign via his political action committee, America PAC.
“GET OUT AND VOTE FOR RANDY — HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN,” Trump posted on X Monday.
Democrats poured resources into the races after the race became unexpectedly close, with Senator Bernie Sanders endorsing Weil, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin campaigning in the state.
In recent years Florida shifted from being a perennial swing state to solidly Republican, buoyed by Trump adopting the state as his home, and migration from people fleeing Democratic states like New York, along with the rightward shift of Cuban, Puerto Rican and Venezuelan migrants in Florida.
But Fine’s underperformance shows that dissatisfaction with Trump might be growing. The president is set to launch his controversial “Liberation Day” tariffs, and many voters have voiced their disapproval of the way Musk’s DOGE has targeted numerous federal agencies for funding and staff cuts.
Democrats in Wisconsin on Wednesday, meanwhile, held onto a seat on the state’s Supreme Court as Susan Crawford ran against former Republican attorney general Brad Schimel, strngly backed by Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Musk had visited Wisconsin and held a rally over the weekend, where he handed out two $1 million checks to voters.
The wins in Florida increase the GOP’s margin in the House to 220 compared to the Democrats’ 213 after two Democratic members of Congress died.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has had to keep a close eye on the margins as Republicans can only afford to lose a handful of members on any given vote. Last week, Trump rescinded the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York to be US ambassador to the United Nations to prevent Democrats from flipping her seat in a special election.
Republicans saw the effects of the tight margins on Tuesday when a handful of Republicans joined every Democrat to defeat a rule to begin debate on crucial parts of Trump’s policy agenda. Johnson and House GOP leadership Republicans had inserted language to kill a discharge petition by Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Flordia to allow new mothers to vote in the House by proxy.
Republicans and Trump hope to pass Trump’s proposed “one big, beautiful bill” that would include extending the 2017 tax cuts he signed, as well as ramping up spending for defense, security at the U.S.-Mexico border and energy exploration.
The race is the first major test for Democrats and Republicans for the second Trump presidency. Later this year, Virginia will hold its governor’s race. Democrats hope to make Musk’s slashing of federal jobs of constituents in Virginia a major sticking point.
Fine will likely have to wait a week until being sworn in. After the failed vote in the House, the chamber adjourned its business for the week.
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