FL Special Elections To Fill U.S. House Seats Vacated By Waltz, Gaetz

FLORIDA — Voters will determine who takes over seats vacated by U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz and Michael Waltz, both Republicans, in two of Florida’s GOP strongholds in Tuesday’s special elections.

Waltz left his seat in the state’s 6th Congressional District to join President Donald Trump’s administration as his national security adviser. His status was shaken last week by the news that Waltz had added a journalist to a Signal app group chat discussing military plans. Waltz, according to The Atlantic, appeared to have mistakenly added the journalist to a chat that included 18 senior Trump administration officials discussing planning for a strike in Yemen, but many Republicans going to the polls to replace Waltz have brushed off the story.

Gaetz stepped down from his seat in the 1st Congressional District at the end of last year when he was tapped by Trump to serve as U.S. attorney general last year. He withdrew from consideration for the role because of growing scrutiny over the allegations against him, though he denied any wrongdoing. An attorney for two women said that his clients told House Ethics Committee investigators that Gaetz paid them for sex on multiple occasions beginning in 2017, when Gaetz was a Florida congressman.

The federal attorney general role eventually went to Pam Bondi, former Florida attorney general.

1st Congressional District

In the 1st Congressional District, which borders Alabama on the Gulf Coast in the westernmost part of the Panhandle, Republican Jimmy Patronis and Democrat Gay Valimont are running to replace Gaetz.

Patronis, the state’s chief financial officer, received Trump’s endorsement in the crowded 10-person primary.

Valimont is a gun control activist. She challenged Gaetz for the seat in November and received 34 percent of the vote.

6th Congressional District

In the 6th Congressional District, on the Atlantic Coast and including Daytona Beach, the candidates are Republican state Sen. Randy Fine and Democrat Josh Weil, a public school educator in Osceola County.

Fine represents a Brevard County-based state Senate district located outside the boundaries of the Palm Coast-area U.S. House seat he hopes to fill. He won a three-way primary on Jan. 28 with Trump’s endorsement.

Trump easily won both districts by more than 30 points in November, CNN reported.

Democrats Hope For An Upset

Despite the seats being in Republican areas, Democrats hope to flip them and narrow even further the GOP’s 218 to 213 majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Democrats have poured millions into the two special elections. They’re especially hopeful about the 6th Congressional District race, where Weil has out-raised Trump-endorsed Fine by a nearly 10-to-1 margin.

“The floodgates have really opened,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida. “It’s like, wow.”

Top Republicans have been unimpressed by Fine’s campaign, CNN reported. A Trump adviser recently confronted him about stepping up, House GOP campaign chief Richard Hudson and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer each separately told Fine to “get his (expletive) together,” the media outlet said.

To avert unexpected losses — especially in the 6th Congressional District — Trump called into two tele-town halls to support Fine and Elon Musk’s America PAC spent more than $76,000 in the race last week, The Hill reported.

With donations for the Democrats flooding in from all 50 states, Republicans are funneling resources into the races in the hopes the GOP won't “get embarrassed” by a better-than-expected showing by Democrats.

“I want it to be a landslide,” said Doug Stauffer, chair of the GOP in Okaloosa County, which is part of the 1st District. “And if it’s not, then we haven’t done the right thing for the constituents.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is already pushing the message that if Democrats overperform in the districts, resistance to Trump’s second term could help them take back the House in 2026.

“These are races that should not under ordinary circumstances be on anyone’s political radar. They are safe Republican seats that Donald Trump won by more than 30 points,” Jeffries told reporters this week. “The American people are not buying what the Republicans are selling. That is why they are on the run.”

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.