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April 1, 2025 14:47-14:56 - CSPAN
08:55
Washington Journal Kimberly Leonard
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo Source
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john mcardle
cspan 01:41

Speaker Time Text
Special Elections in Florida 00:08:36
unidentified
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john mcardle ▲ ● ▼
We should note, there's also a couple of very important special elections taking place in the Sunshine State of Florida.
To talk about those races, we're joined now by Kimberly Leonard, Politico Florida's playbook author Kimberly Leonard.
Good morning to you.
Explain to viewers what's on the ballot today in Sunshine State.
unidentified
We have two special elections in Florida for the U.S. House, and this is happening at a time where Republicans are really hoping to grow their margins, and Democrats are hoping that they have something to show that they are making inroads, that in either their messaging or that their candidates are somehow figuring out how to gain their footing after big losses in November against Trump.
So the first is in Florida's first congressional district, and that is the seat that Matt Gates used to hold.
And then the other race is in the 6th congressional district, which is the seat that Michael Waltz used to hold.
So names that are very familiar nationally, especially with the news developments in the last week.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼
And these are both Republican seats that the Republican Party candidate won by 30 points or so back in November.
Why are they getting so much attention today?
And which one is the one we should be paying more attention to if we're looking for a party flip?
unidentified
Well, the one getting a lot of attention is the 6th congressional district.
The candidate who's running there is Randy Fine, and he's a state senator.
And for those who might not know, Randy Fine is someone who made a lot of news a little over a year ago because he flipped his endorsement from Governor Ron DeSantis to Trump during the primary.
He basically put out an op-ed saying that DeSantis had not done enough to fight anti-Semitism in Florida.
It got a lot of attention at the time.
And it was something that really, you know, brought him then close, of course, to Trump World.
And that's why Trump endorsed him for the congressional seat.
And he is up against a progressive candidate whose name is Josh Wheel.
And the reason it's really tight, or at least seen that way, because I do think at the end of the day that it'll end up going Republican just because of the dynamics in the district, is because the Democratic candidate raised a ton of money.
And it was mostly small dollar donors.
It was $10 million.
And a lot of it was out of state, largely through those social media ads that you see.
And he ran on a message of, look, we need to get these House seats in order so that we can have folks in Congress who can help to raid in Trump's agenda.
So it was a message that really worked for small dollar donors across the U.S. If you look at donors that are from mostly blue states.
And so he's gotten a lot of attention for that.
And polling by Tony Fabricio, who was Trump's pollster, also showed that the race was super close.
So it made Republicans very nervous.
Trump did a teletown hall to help out.
Don Jr. got involved.
You saw interviews with Steve Bannon.
They really sent out the Calvary because they were so nervous.
And I could talk about the other race too.
It's not considered as close, but it's still, again, getting a lot of attention because of the closed margins.
And on the Republican side is Jimmy Petronas, who's the state chief financial officer.
And then Gay Valamont is the Democratic candidate.
She ran against Matt Gates before, and she is a gun safety advocate.
So the reason there's a lot of attention is just to kind of see what messaging sticks for Democrats because they're nervous about how to reclaim their leadership and their positions heading into the midterms.
And so this will be the earliest test of that.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼
And that's the question on the coming back to the sixth district race, the Mike Waltz seat, the one that's that's viewed to be closer here.
You talked about sort of the parade of big name Republicans who have gone down after this polling scare.
What is the Democratic strategy?
Do they send in, have they sent in big name Democrats to try to turn this race?
How do they try to appeal to a district that was a 30% Republican margin not four months ago?
unidentified
Yeah, well, the first thing I need to say is that Florida has really slipped out of Democrats' grasp.
I mean, very significantly, really in 2022 with Ron DeSantis' re-election, but even more so in 2024 when Trump won by 13 points there.
Now, as a reminder, he won by only three points there in 2020.
So huge inroads for Republicans.
Democrats have really been trying to seize on very specific messaging, blaming Elon Musk for federal workforce cuts.
They say that Trump is going to cut Social Security, even though he says that he's not.
And they also say that voters are telling them that they're frustrated, that things are still really expensive.
And so they're leaning into that.
You know, Trump said he would fix all this and he hasn't is the messaging that they're using.
So will it be effective?
We'll see.
If it really isn't, it could be difficult for Democrats to make the case in Florida again.
You know, here they think they're super close.
They don't need to win today.
They just need to get close, basically, to have some sort of an argument to say invest in Florida.
So that's what we're closely watching is not just the results, but the margins.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼
And then help viewers understand how the results are going to come in, timing here.
Traditionally for a special election in Florida, do we find out that night?
Is this the sort of thing that we wait weeks for?
unidentified
Oh, no, no.
That's the nice thing about being a Florida politics reporter.
I can go to bed at a normal time usually unless there's a lot of analysis to be reporting right afterwards.
No, Florida counts the votes as they come in and early voting and mail and voting.
So we should know very soon after the polls close.
The one thing I will note is that the one in District 1 is actually technically Central time.
So that'll come about an hour later.
So probably around 7, 8 o'clock.
I think by 9, we'll have a good sense of where everything lies, if not even sooner than that.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼
And as Politico's Florida Playbook author, where are you going to be tonight?
And are you going to be giving analysis at Politico as the results come in?
unidentified
Well, I'll be writing.
That's my main job.
I sometimes get to go on television, but I am in Miami.
That's where I'm based.
I do travel around the state quite a bit, but I am just working out of my hometown tonight just because there are a lot of stories that we're following all over Florida.
There's a lot happening even in Tallahassee that we're watching.
So trying to get my pulse on everything.
There's a lot in Florida to be able to keep track of.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼
And all those stories available at Politico.com and the Florida Playbook.
Kimberly Leonard is a politics reporter and the author of the Florida Playbook.
Appreciate your time at the start of a busy day down in the Sunshine State.
unidentified
Thank you.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court election has set a record for the most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history.
Today, Wisconsin voters will choose between Judges Susan Crawford and Brad Schimmel to be a justice on the court, an election that could flip the ideological balance of the state's highest judicial office.
Watch our simulcast coverage courtesy of Spectrum News Wisconsin live starting at 9 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN.
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