Republicans have the opportunity on Tuesday to increase their slim House majority in a pair of special elections in Florida.

Voters head to the polls to fill the seats in Florida’s 1st and 6th Congressional Districts, formerly held by Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz.

Pensacola News Journal reports:

On Tuesday, Florida voters in 10 counties will cast their votes to fill up vacated seats in Florida’s first and sixth Congressional Districts, formerly occupied by Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz.

Nearly 60,000 Escambia and Santa Rosa county voters already cast their ballots either by mail or through early voting. Those numbers are just a fraction of the almost 370,000 registered voters in both counties, however.

On Tuesday, the remaining voters will have until 7 p.m. to decide whether Chief Financial Officer for the state of Florida Jimmy Patronis and Gay Valimont, who ran against Gaetz for the same seat in November, will replace Gaetz in Congress.

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Voters in Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties will also vote for their District 3 state representative.

WATCH:

From POLITICO:

A Florida pair of House special elections on Tuesday is the earliest chance Republicans have to build on their fragile majority — and one Democrats see as an early voter litmus test of President Donald Trump’s second term.

The races are taking place in Trump’s adopted home state, the source of numerous White House officials. Florida voters supported Trump all three times he ran for president. Democrats — who’ve been all but stomped into irrelevancy there — have been trying to regain their footing, knowing the state’s electoral importance will only grow stronger with projected future population shifts.

The newest chance: Florida’s 6th District, where recent polling shows a tight race. Predictions of an easy Republican win quickly evaporated in the closing weeks of the campaign, bringing in loads of interest, dollars and surrogates.

Democrat Josh Weil has brought in $10 million in largely out-of-state cash from small-dollar donors. Trump, meanwhile, endorsed Republican state Sen. Randy Fine in the district, which he won by more than 30 points in November.

“There’s no such thing as a perpetual red district or a perpetual blue district,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said after canvassing in the district over the weekend. “Everything’s in play.”

The seat became available when Mike Waltz resigned to become Trump’s national security adviser.

 

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