ORMOND BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Voting is well underway in two Florida congressional districts holding special elections, where Democrats are hoping frustrations with the aggressive start to the second Trump administration will give them a lift in districts that have long been Republican strongholds.
The two seats are in heavily pro-Trump districts and have seen a major push by Democrats, who have poured millions in fundraising into Tuesday’s special elections. The spots were vacated when President Donald Trump chose Matt Gaetz from the 1st District to be attorney general before he withdrew, while Mike Waltz from the 6th District became national security adviser.
Florida state Sen. Randy Fine, running for Waltz’s seat, and state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, running to replace Gaetz, are widely expected to hold the seats, which would give Republicans a 220 to 213 advantage over Democrats in the U.S. House. But both have been outraised by their Democratic counterparts, and Republicans in Florida and Washington have begun trying to distance themselves from any potential underperformance.
Special elections are often low-turnout events that can lead to surprising results. But anything other than blowout victories in either district would be noteworthy.
In the November election, Gaetz won the 1st Congressional District in Florida’s heavily conservative Panhandle by 32 percentage points. Waltz won the 6th Congressional District — which includes deeply red regions in northeastern Florida — by about 33 percentage points.
GOP fell way behind in campaign contributions
Both Patronis and Fine have been outspent and outraised by their Democratic opponents, Gay Valimont in District 1 and Josh Weil in District 6.
Valimont, a gun control activist, has raised about $6.5 million according to fundraising reports, versus Patronis’ $2.1 million. Weil, an educator and self-described “proud progressive,” has raised $9 million for his race, compared to about $1 million raised by Fine, according to his campaign contributions report.
Democrats credit the money raised to grassroots support fueled by anger at the first two months of the second Trump administration.
The momentum is placing unexpected pressure on Fine, a self-described conservative firebrand known for his support of Israel and his efforts to restrict LGBTQ+ rights. Fine said last week that he put $600,000 of his own money into the race.
Fine has attached himself closely to Trump, who encouraged voters in a Tuesday post on his Truth Social platform.
“Randy Fine has my Complete and Total Endorsement! Election Day is TODAY. GET OUT AND VOTE FOR RANDY — HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!,” the post said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who formerly represented the 6th Congressional District, said last week that he expects Fine, who lives outside of the district, to deliver an “underperformance” compared to the votes he and Trump got there. He called it a “reflection of the specific candidate running in that race” rather than a referendum on Trump.
“I think the district is so overwhelmingly Republican that it’s almost impossible for someone with an R by their name to lose that district, so I would anticipate (a) Republican candidate is still going to be successful,” DeSantis said.
North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee, also acknowledged Fine should have stepped up his fundraising earlier but said he still expects him to win.
“I’m not concerned about margins,” Hudson said. “I mean, special elections are special.”
U.S. Rep Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans feeling pressure from Democrats in District 6 would be as if Democrats would fear a loss in the heavily Democratic New York district represented by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
“This is a district that Donald Trump won by 30 points, and Republicans are scared and scrambling and spending millions of dollars in a safe Republican district,” Jeffries said.
What voters are saying
Peter Schaper, a 34-year-old resident who lives with his parents in the Villages, said he voted for Weil because he is concerned about his parents being affected by any threats to Medicare and Social Security, adding his father has been on lots of medications since liver transplant surgery in 2017.
“If God forbid something happened to Medicare or Social Security, as it looks like it might, I don’t know what’s going to happen to them,” Schaper said of his parents.
In Daytona Beach, 82-year-old Francis Allen said she has been voting for 30 years in every election, whether special or primary, and she believed it was important to vote for Republicans because she heard it was going to be close.
Allen said she voted for Trump in November because she believes he’s bringing this country in the right direction, and she voted for Fine because he’s backed by the president.
“I think it goes hand in hand. His people are on the same wavelength he’s on,” Allen said. “It’s like peanut butter and jelly.”
In the Florida Panhandle, retired nurse Brenda Ray and her husband, Vietnam War veteran Mike Ray, made it to the polls to support the Republican in District 1. Brenda Ray said she didn’t know a lot about Patronis, but she supports him because she believes he’ll “vote with our president.”
“That’s all we’re looking for,” she said.
The couple said they recently sold their home near Eglin Air Force Base, citing the cost of upkeep and insurance, and they welcomed the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal government spending, praising the president’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk as a “patriot.”
“I hate these people having to lose their jobs but at the same time we need to cut the fat,” she said. “I’ve had to cut the fat. Why shouldn’t they?”
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Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, and Matt Brown in Washington contributed to this report.
