President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to tap at least three House members and at least one senator to serve in his administration will set up special elections, adding an element of uncertainty to closely divided chambers.
The nomination of three-term Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to be secretary of State will first give an opportunity for GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis to appoint a new senator. According to the Congressional Research Service, the appointed senator would serve through the next general election.
The nomination would set up a special election in 2026, with Rubio’s current term set to run through 2028. DeSantis thus could appoint a placeholder or a senator who would seek to run in that special election for the last two years of the term.
DeSantis, who ran in the presidential primary against Trump this cycle, is already getting public calls from supporters of the 45th and 47th president to appoint Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in-law, to the Rubio seat. Among her advocates is Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt. Other contenders include James Uthmeier, who is DeSantis’ chief of staff, and Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez.
In Ohio, when Republican Sen. JD Vance leaves his seat to become vice president, GOP Gov. Mike DeWine will be able to appoint a replacement to serve until the next general election, in 2026. The full term for Vance’s seat is up in 2028, according to CRS.
At least three House special elections
Governors do not get to make appointments to fill open House seats, although they do get to schedule special elections to fill vacancies.
Florida GOP Rep. Michael Waltz is the president-elect’s pick to be national security adviser. Since that is a senior White House staff position and not subject to the Senate confirmation process, Waltz will likely depart the House no later than the start of the new administration. And with Trump tapping Rep. Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general, that would create two Florida House Republican vacancies.
DeSantis showed little urgency in calling a special election to fill the vacancy created by the April 2021 death of Democratic Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (in a safe district for Democrats). The special general election was so late that the seat was open for nine months. It is unlikely DeSantis would let that much time go by in calling a special election to replace two GOP members.
In fact, Gaetz tendered his resignation from the House on Wednesday, enabling DeSantis to call for a special election in short order and to possibly get a new member sworn in soon after the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., explained at a press conference after House GOP leadership elections: “Out of deference to us, he issued his resignation letter, effective immediately, from Congress. That caught us by surprise a little bit, but I asked him what the reasoning was, and he said, ‘Well, you can’t have too many absences.’ So under Florida state law, there’s about an eight-week period to select and fill a vacancy. And so by doing so today, that allows me — I’ve already placed a call to Governor DeSantis in Florida and said, ‘Let’s start the clock.’
“He’s in Italy at the moment, and so we’re going to talk first thing in the morning about this. … So Matt would have done us a great service by making that decision, as he did on the fly, and so we’re grateful for that. So we move forward.”
Gaetz’ resignation also terminates an Ethics Committee investigation, because the committee has no jurisdiction into former members. Over the summer, the panel said it was reviewing allegations Gaetz may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
“It is true that a former member of Congress, the House Ethics Committee would have no further jurisdiction over the person, no further authority over them. So that would not be unprecedented, but as far as the timing of a release of a report or something, I don’t know. The Speaker of the House is not involved in that. Can’t be involved in that. So I’m not really the person to probably answer that question,” Johnson said when asked about the Ethics probe.
In New York, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik is Trump’s intended nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations. There is no indication yet of when she would depart the House. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has little discretion in setting special election dates once the seat becomes vacant.
Hochul would have a 10-day window to call the special election, to be set between 70 and 80 days after that. The precise timing of the special election would depend on when Stefanik is confirmed by the Senate.
In New York, involved county parties pick their nominees for special elections in lieu of primaries.
Jacob Fulton contributed to this report.
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