MIAMI — Republicans’ all-hands-on-deck technique in a good Florida particular election pulled state Sen. Randy Positive into the Home on Tuesday, an consequence that barely will increase the margins President Donald Trump must work with as he tries to push his agenda via Congress.
Based on the Related Press, Trump-endorsed Positive gained in a particular election in opposition to Democrat Josh Weil, a progressive and a trainer, regardless of nervousness from nationwide occasion operatives and closer-than-expected polling. Positive, a bare-knuckle former playing government who embraces the nickname the “Hebrew Hammer,” will add one other firebrand to Florida’s congressional delegation.
The seat in Florida’s sixth District was up for grabs after former Rep. Mike Waltz joined the Trump administration as nationwide safety adviser. Nationwide curiosity within the election surged in current days, partly as a result of Waltz has been on the heart of a political firestorm after by chance including The Atlantic’s editor in chief to a delicate group chat discussing assault plans in Yemen.
Intrigue additionally percolated two weeks in the past as warning indicators for Positive emerged. Federal Election Fee stories confirmed Weil had considerably outfundraised Positive — $10 million to underneath $1 million — and an inner ballot from Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio confirmed Weil up by 3 share factors over Positive two weeks earlier than the election.
The late figures and panic mobilized GOP help, on condition that the White Home didn’t wish to lose the seat and even let Democrats tighten the race and attempt to use it for example of how voters may be souring on Trump’s agenda so early in his second time period.
Within the closing days of the marketing campaign, Positive received vocal help from conservative commentators, Trump and a political committee related to Elon Musk. Trump himself held a tele-town corridor with voters Thursday and urged the district to again Positive. Additionally holding a telephone occasion for Positive: GOP Rep. Byron Donalds, the Trump-endorsed 2026 candidate for governor.
Fewer voters are inclined to prove in particular elections due to low consciousness. The seat can also be so reliably crimson — having supported Trump by 30 factors in November — that GOP voters could have initially taken a win within the seat with no consideration.
Weil’s marketing campaign introduced in main fundraising numbers by leveraging small-dollar donors from exterior the state, largely via social media advertisements that urged voters to help him so he might stymie Trump’s agenda by additional narrowing GOP Home margins.
Positive has been a thorn within the facet of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for greater than a yr. The legislator flipped his endorsement from DeSantis to Trump throughout the 2024 GOP major, making a platform for different Republicans to do the identical. He continued to conflict with the governor afterward.
DeSantis final week publicly blamed Positive throughout a press convention adjoining to the state senator’s hometown for the closer-than-expected predictions and dismissed any theories that the race was a referendum on Trump. He as a substitute mentioned the forecasts have been a “reflection of the particular candidate operating in that race” although he predicted Positive would pull via.
Whereas within the Legislature, Positive was the sponsor of a number of items of high-profile laws, together with the push to dissolve Walt Disney World’s particular tax district and the trouble to ban crucial race concept from public faculties. He additionally wrote a invoice DeSantis signed into regulation in February that rescinded in-state tuition for undocumented college students whose dad and mom introduced them to the U.S. as kids.
He informed POLITICO forward of the election that he appeared ahead to “specializing in President Trump’s agenda and ensuring Speaker Johnson and President Trump have one other soldier on the battlefield to get completed what they should get completed.”
“I do suppose that my model will work properly in Washington,” he mentioned. “I imply, I am an aggressive man. … I made it my aim to simply put my head down and do a superb job and do what I believed was proper, to say what I feel, and never fear about it. And I feel that labored.”
