Republican James Patronis has won the special election for Florida’s 1st Congressional District in a race brought about when Rep. Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress, NBC News projects. (Gaetz had been picked to serve as President Donald Trump’s attorney general before he pulled his name out of consideration in November.)
As Florida’s chief financial officer, Patronis once promoted the idea that taxpayers should pay for Trump’s legal defenses in his four criminal cases. Patronis entered the race with a heavy advantage, running in a district that Trump won by 37 points in 2024. But like the special election for Florida’s 6th Congressional District, also on Tuesday, the race was seen as a bellwether for the persistence of Trump’s support (or lack thereof) among conservatives as the president wages war on federal programs and defunds government services on which many Americans rely.
Patronis defeated Democrat Gay Valimont, a gun violence activist who lost to Gaetz in November.
The Republican’s victory provides a bit of cushion to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who is already working with a razor-thin majority in the House and could hardly afford losing a seat.
In recent weeks, Republicans have worried about signs that even some conservative voters may have grown uneasy with Trump’s deep cuts to everything from funds for food banks to vital grants for health research. In early March, the National Republican Congressional Committee advised its caucus not to host in-person town halls in their districts after numerous videos of angry attendees berating lawmakers went viral.
Democrat James Malone added to Republicans’ concerns last month when he won a state Senate race in Pennsylvania in a district that Trump won by 15 points in November. And Trump himself announced last week he’d pulled his nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations out of concern over Republicans’ slim margin in the House.
Nonetheless, Republicans held the Florida seat, which never truly appeared to be in doubt. It may be enough to quiet the GOP’s worries for now, but there are still signs of growing rancor toward what the Trump administration is doing in Washington.
