WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Two special elections in Florida on Tuesday are expected to boost Republicans’ slim 218-213 majority in the U.S. House of Representatives by filling vacancies created by President Donald Trump’s picks for cabinet posts.
Voters in strongly Republican districts are set to pick successors to former U.S. Representatives Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, and Matt Gaetz, who resigned after Trump tapped him to serve as attorney general, but withdrew from consideration in the face of opposition from his own party.
This is the first federal election since Trump took office on January 20, setting up a potential test of voter sentiment on a presidential agenda that includes slashing the government workforce and a crackdown on immigration.
FLORIDA’S FIRST DISTRICT
Republican Jimmy Patronis, the state’s chief financial officer who is backed by Trump, is running against Democrat Gay Valimont, a gun violence prevention activist, in the special election for the 1st congressional district in Florida’s panhandle, which includes Pensacola.
Democrats have contributed more than $6 million to Valimont in the short election time frame, out-raising Patronis. However, in the November 2024 election, Gaetz beat Valimont with almost two-thirds of the vote.
FLORIDA’S SIXTH DISTRICT
Republican State Senator Randy Fine is running against Josh Weil, a Democrat and public school educator to represent the state’s 6th congressional district in its northeast, including Daytona Beach.
Weil has also significantly out-raised his Republican opponent with almost $9 million in contributions. Republicans are favored in the race as Waltz beat his Democratic opponent in the 2024 general election with more than 66% of the vote.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)
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