Republicans will hold on to their narrow majority in the House of Representatives after winning a pair of special elections in Florida on Tuesday. In Florida’s 6th Congressional District, Republican state Senator Randy Fine has defeated Democrat and public school teacher Josh Weil to claim the seat vacated when Trump appointed Michael Waltz as national security adviser. Weil dramatically increased Democrats’ share of the vote in a district Trump won by over 30 points last November.
Meanwhile, Republican Jimmy Patronis has defeated Democrat Gay Valimont to win an open seat for Florida’s 1st Congressional District in the Florida Panhandle. Valimont’s share of the vote increased by 10 percentage points over the November election, when she lost to far-right Republican Matt Gaetz, who would later be nominated by Trump as attorney general, only to resign from Congress amid a sex trafficking and drugs scandal. Patronis is Florida’s chief financial officer; he previously called for public funds to be used to pay for Trump’s legal defenses in his four criminal cases.