Republican state Sen. Randy Fine has won a close election to the House seat representing Florida’s 6th Congressional District to succeed former GOP Rep. Michael Waltz, who stepped down to become President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.
Fine, who represents a Brevard County-based state Senate district, defeated Orlando teacher Josh Weil, a Democrat, in the race for the seat on the Atlantic Coast. Neither candidate currently resides in the district.
The Associated Press called the race for Fine at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday. With about 95% of the ballots counted, Fine led with 57% of the vote to Weil’s 43%.
“I thank President Donald J. Trump, who asked me to do this, and who trusted me all along the way and put his own credibility on the line to make sure that we got over the finish line,” Fine said at his victory party Tuesday night. “Mr. President, this win is yours, far more than is mine.”
The race began to spark national attention after Republicans sounded the alarm following early voting totals and polls, which showed a closer-than-expected contest. Last week, the district’s former representative-turned-national security adviser sparked a media frenzy after adding a prominent journalist to a high-level group chat about the U.S. strikes in Yemen.
Even though the margin of victory is not typical of the district, which Waltz and Trump won by over 30 points in November, Republicans say their win effectively shuts down Democrats’ argument that voters disapprove of Trump ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“So as far as I’m concerned, a win is a win, is a win,” said Vic Baker, a committee member for the Volusia County GOP. “Maybe it’s a little smaller than we have had in the past — but there’s only one way to look at this and it’s that we got a win.”
The outcome of the special election gives Republicans some breathing room in the narrowly divided chamber; they currently have a slim 218-213 margin. Fine’s victory, along with a win from Republican Jimmy Patronis in Florida’s 1st District to replace former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, brings the GOP House majority up to 220 seats.
The unexpected competitive nature of the race has already influenced Trump’s Cabinet decisions. Last week, he announced the withdrawal of Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-NY) nomination for U.N. ambassador, citing, in part, a desire to avoid a special election for her seat later this year.
In the week leading up to the election, Fine came under fire from GOP leaders who felt he wasn’t mounting an effective enough campaign in the race to succeed Waltz. But, in an interview with the Washington Examiner, Fine argued that the conditions in a special election, typically with lower voter turnout, can be unpredictable. He warned against drawing broad conclusions about future races.
“If the turnout model was the same, so if it was the same percentage of Republicans, Independents, and Democrats as November, and I won by 10 and Waltz won by 30, you’d be able to make that conclusion. If it’s because Democrats turned out more than Republicans, it’s that you can take away that Democrats are really mad and Republicans are a little more complacent,” Fine said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has made his disapproval of Fine clear publicly and said any kind of GOP underperformance would be due to Fine’s candidacy and not Trump. The two have had a fraught relationship after Fine turned on DeSantis during the 2024 GOP primary and switched his endorsement to Trump after saying the governor hadn’t done enough to address antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Weil mounted his campaign for the 6th District as a “proud progressive.” The Democratic candidate attempted to win over seniors and veterans in the solidly red district who were frustrated with cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. He briefly ran for Senate in 2022.
In recent years, Democrats have performed well in these contests, including a recent Pennsylvania State Senate race, because of a different turnout than a higher-profile November election.
Even before the race was called, Democrats were attempting to spin the results, arguing that a closer race in a solidly Republican district should signal that voters are dissatisfied with the Trump administration’s work since taking office in January.
“Anything less than a 30-point win for Republicans in this district is a loss — period, if they don’t get the message that Americans are not on board with the Trump administration’s agenda, then they are not listening,” said Pamela Castellana, a DNC member and the vice chairwoman for the Florida Democratic Party.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee did not invest in the race, but Weil had a significant war chest after tapping into progressive rage across the country, raising 10 times more money than Fine, according to federal campaign finance records.
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In the final days of the race, national Republicans sent in resources. According to data from media-tracking firm AdImpact, over $5 million was spent on television ads. Despite Weil’s strong fundraising numbers, he has been significantly outspent on TV nearly 4-to-1.
Fine won a three-way primary on Jan. 28 with Trump’s endorsement. The 50-year-old served eight years in the Florida House before being elected to the state Senate in November. As the only Jewish Republican in the 160-member Florida legislature, Fine has welcomed the moniker “Hebrew Hammer,” which was given to him by a Republican colleague. He has emerged as a key advocate of pro-Israel policies and efforts to fight antisemitism.
