Republicans held on to a pair of deep-red House seats in Florida special elections Tuesday, helping to shore up their slim majority in the chamber and overcoming a well-funded challenge by Democrats in districts that Donald Trump easily won less than five months ago.
In the 6th District, which includes Daytona Beach, former state Sen. Randy Fine defeated Democrat Josh Weil, who had benefited from a fundraising surge fueled by Democratic anger at the Trump administration. Fine was leading 54 percent to 46 percent when The Associated Press called the race at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time.
He will succeed Republican Michael Waltz, who won a fourth term in November by 33 points before resigning to become Trump’s national security adviser.
And in the 1st District, GOP nominee Jimmy Patronis, the state’s former chief financial officer, won a Florida Panhandle seat left vacant by the November resignation of Republican Matt Gaetz. Patronis was leading Democrat Gay Valimont 55 percent to 44 percent when the AP called the race at 8:20 p.m. Eastern time.
The victories by Fine and Patronis, who each had Trump’s endorsement, bring Republicans back to maximum strength in the closely divided House, at 220 seats. Two seats remain vacant following the deaths of Democratic Reps. Sylvester Turner of Texas and Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona.
6th District
The 6th District outcome was much closer than had initially been anticipated. In the weeks leading up to the election, Fine came under fire from GOP leaders who felt he wasn’t mounting an effective campaign. CNN reported that a top Trump adviser had personally warned Fine to shape up, while National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer both reportedly told him to “get his shit together.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is no ally of Fine’s and who once represented an earlier version of the 6th District, cast downbeat expectations ahead of the election, telling reporters last week that he expected “a way underperformance” for the Republican nominee.
“Is that a reflection on the president? Absolutely not. It’s a reflection of the candidate that’s running in that race,” DeSantis said.
Campaign filings show that Weil’s campaign raked in contributions totaling more than $9 million through March 12, outraising Fine by roughly 10 to 1. Fine later loaned his campaign $400,000 and benefited from ad spending of nearly $1 million by the Florida GOP, Politico reported.
Fine served eight years in the Florida House before being elected to the state Senate in November. Just weeks later, he announced his campaign for the House after Trump picked Waltz to join his administration and endorsed Fine. He resigned from his state Senate seat effective Monday under Florida’s resign-to-run law.
Fine leaned heavily on Trump’s endorsement during the special election, with one of his ads accusing Weil’s “liberal Washington backers” of funding his campaign “to stop President Trump’s agenda.”
“That’s why President Trump picked Randy Fine. Together, they will secure the border, lower property taxes and protect Social Security and Medicare,” the ad’s narrator says.
In an interview, Fine pointed to his legislative work on education as a guiding light for his priorities in Congress and reiterated his staunch support for Israel. But he said what district voters ultimately cared most about was electing a “fighter” for Trump’s agenda.
“Trump won this district by 30 points in November,” Fine said. “That’s what these people want.”
Shortly after entering the race, Fine faced swift condemnation for a social media post directed toward Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, saying the two Muslim Democrats “might consider leaving” before he gets to Congress.
“The ‘Hebrew Hammer’ is coming,” wrote Fine, who is Jewish, before ending with the hashtag “#BombsAway.” The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group, called the post “reprehensible”; Fine denied that it was a threat.
He also attacked his opponent’s Muslim faith during the campaign, labeling him “Jihad Josh Weil” and accusing him of supporting “Muslim terror,” The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. Weil’s campaign cut ads framing Fine as “unhinged” and “un-American.”
Weil, a public school math teacher who briefly ran for Senate in 2022, mounted his bid for the 6th District as a “proud progressive.” His campaign also faced some controversy. A consulting firm was forced to pull online ads for Weil — and Valimont in the 1st District special election — after New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg both complained about unauthorized use of their materials, including excerpts from a lengthy Instagram video by Ocasio-Cortez.
1st District
The 1st District seat opened up after Gaetz resigned in November, hours after Trump announced plans to nominate him to be attorney general. He ultimately bowed out amid sexual misconduct allegations and the specter of a then-unreleased ethics report. He did not take the oath of office for the 119th Congress.
Like Fine in the 6th District, the Trump-endorsed Patronis also faced unexpectedly high Democratic fundraising in his special election.
Valimont, an anti-gun-violence activist who was also the 2024 nominee for the seat, brought in more than $6 million through March 12, compared with $2.1 million for Patronis, according to Federal Election Commission records. But the race did not draw the same national scrutiny as the Fine-Weil contest, with Patronis seen as a more engaged campaigner.
Nevertheless, his winning margin represented a drop from November, when district voters gave Gaetz a 32-point victory over Valimont while backing Trump by a greater 37 points, according to calculations by elections analyst Drew Savicki.
A fixture in Florida politics for nearly two decades, Patronis previously served in the state House and as an appointed member of the state’s Public Service Commission. He has twice been elected as Florida CFO, a position he resigned from on Monday in advance of the special election.
“People reach out to Jimmy for everything because Jimmy gets things done,” Patronis told the Pensacola News Journal. “It’s no different in why President Trump reached out to me. He didn’t reach out to anybody else in the primary, saying, ‘Jimmy, I want you to run for Congress. Jimmy, if you’ll run, I’ll support you.’”
Besides pledging to work with Trump on the border, Patronis has also highlighted veterans care issues and the economic importance of the U.S. military’s F-35 program, which has a key training base in the district.
Patronis’ departure as Florida CFO gives DeSantis another opportunity to hand-pick a candidate for a statewide appointment. In January, he picked state Attorney General Ashley Moody for the Senate seat that Marco Rubio vacated to become secretary of State. DeSantis then replaced Moody as Florida’s top lawyer with former top aide James Uthmeier. The position of lieutenant governor is also vacant after incumbent Jeanette Nuñez resigned to become interim president of Florida International University.
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