1 day ago
6
Republican Randy Fine won a special election Tuesday for a House seat in Florida vacated by Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, although Democrats are likely to perform better in the Republican district than they did in November.
Democratic candidate Josh Weil put up a stiff challenge in the eastern coastal district that Trump carried by 30 percentage points in the November elections, but the AP called the race for Fine early on Tuesday evening.
Democrats were holding out hope for a surprise victory. Weil, a Democratic public school teacher, had outraised Fine, a state senator, and a poll had shown them running practically neck in neck days before the election.
Earlier on Tuesday, voter Andrew Julius cast his ballot for Weil in Daytona Beach, Florida because he said he seemed like a level-headed, educated person. He was also concerned about how Trump’s team were handling foreign policy, including the latest privacy concern when Waltz shared war plans on a Signal chat that included a journalist.
“I had a top secret security clearance with my job in the Navy because I was a sonar tech,” he said. “If I would have done just a fraction of a mistake or what was done with this whole Signal-gate fiasco, I would have been court martial-ed.”
But the majority of voters continued to support the Republican ticket.
At the Church of Christ in Daytona Beach, Fine campaign volunteer “Spock” Hinson wore a shirt with Trump’s mugshot that said Never Surrender. The former Democrat said he supported Trump and key ally Elon Musk. “I want him to do what he’s trying to do,” he said of Musk. “Anybody who’s not happy with him is either brainwashed or a crook.”
On social media, Trump, who had endorsed Fine, congratulated him for “a great WIN against a massive CASH AVALANCHE”.
For congressional Republicans, the election win helps preserve their razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, which is in the middle of a complex negotiation with the Senate aimed at enacting legislation authorizing Trump’s campaign promises, including the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, an extension of tax cuts passed during his first term and an increase in the US government’s debt ceiling.
after newsletter promotion
A second special election in Florida for the seat vacated by Republican Matt Gaetz, who resigned after Trump nominated him for attorney general only to drop out amid reports of sexual misconduct and drug use or possession, has not yet been called. Democrats were not expected to be competitive in the heavily Republican area.
Before Tuesday’s special elections, the GOP held 218 seats in Congress’s lower chamber and the Democrats 213. But despite their disappointing performance in last November’s presidential election, Democrats appear to be continuing their streak of strong performances in off-year elections nationwide. Last week, a Democrat won an upset victory in a state senate race in Pennsylvania and the Trump administration a day later withdrew their nomination of congresswoman Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador, a decision widely seen as fueled by concern over creating another vacant House seat.
