New: Winner Declared in Special Election for Florida's First Congressional District

By Susie Moore | 8:05 PM on April 01, 2025

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House Republicans can breathe a small sigh of relief as they've held onto the House seat vacated by former Rep. Matt Gaetz in Florida's special election.

The GOP pulled out a narrow win in the House in November, hanging onto the majority with 222 seats. The good news is that Donald Trump also won the presidential election. The bad news is that he then needed to stock his Cabinet — and that meant tapping several GOP members of Congress, including Gaetz (initially selected by Trump to serve as U.S. Attorney General) and now-National Security Advisor Mike Waltz (CD-6), which further narrowed the GOP majority.

Gaetz had won reelection in Florida's First Congressional District handily in November — by 32 points. It's considered an R+19 district, so reasonably "safe" for Republicans. But that didn't stop Democrats from pouring tons of money into the race to replace Gaetz following his resignation. Democrat Gay Valimont (who challenged Gaetz in 2024) raised roughly $6.5 million to Republican Jimmy Patronis' $2.1 million.

FL CFO Patronis: S&P Came ‘to Their Senses,’ Leftwing ESG Ratings Not Welcome in Sunshine State

But it appears Republicans got a far better rate of return. Despite being outspent three-to-one, Patronis, Florida's current chief financial officer, has emerged the winner. The race has been called for Patronis, who leads Valimont by 14 points, with 13 percent of the vote counted.

With the win by Republican Randy Fine in Florida's Sixth Congressional District, the GOP will be back up to 220 seats, giving them a temporary seven-seat advantage (until special elections are held for the 18th Congressional District in Texas to replace Democrat Sylvester Turner (who passed away on March 5th) and the Seventh Congressional District in Arizona to replace Democrat Raúl Grijalva (who passed away on March 15th).

Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.

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