Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin is deploying himself to campaign for a Florida candidate who is giving the GOP a run for its money in a solid red district.
Democrat Josh Weil is only narrowly trailing Republican Randy Fine in recent polling ahead of a special election on April 1 to fill national security adviser Mike Waltz’s former seat in Florida’s 6th Congressional District. Weil has also outraised Fine by millions.
This weekend, Martin is seeking to build further momentum by visiting St. Augustine and Daytona Beach with Weil and participating in a roundtable with Hispanic leaders in Orlando, according to the Hill.
“I’m going to Florida’s 6th Congressional District this weekend as part of my Organizing Everywhere Tour because the stakes are too high for Democrats to not compete all across the map,” Martin said.
The seat is unlikely to flip blue as Waltz won his race by 33 points in 2024. However, the race represents an opportunity for Democrats to showcase momentum for the party in an election cycle in which they are facing challenges. Although Weil remains a heavy underdog, Democrats hope to show that piercing deep-red territory is possible in a state that drastically shifted rightward in the 2024 elections.
Galvanizing Weil’s performance in the race is the fact that his opponent is not seen as the strongest candidate and has burned bridges with several of his GOP colleagues.
“It’s a candidate-specific issue,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said Tuesday, predicting Fine will “underperform” in the race.
“I think the district is so overwhelmingly Republican that … it’s almost impossible for somebody with an ‘R’ by their name to lose that district,” he said. “I would anticipate a Republican candidate is still going to be successful. Do I think they’ll be able to get even close to the margins that I received or President Trump received? No. Is that a reflection on the president? Absolutely not. It’s a reflection of the candidate running in that race.”
Fine has engaged in feuds with his Republican peers, and his move to flip his endorsement from DeSantis to President Donald Trump during the 2024 elections took him out of good graces with Florida’s highest-ranking Republican.
In addition, Fine was ordered to complete an anger management course by a Brevard County judge last fall after he was found in contempt of court for making an obscene gesture during a virtual hearing.
“Look, if he wanted me, ask me what giving him the middle finger would have looked like, I could have shown him,” Fine, who denied that he made the gesture, said about the ruling, per a local news outlet.
DEMOCRATS FIGHT TO GAIN FOOTHOLDS IN FLORIDA AS GOP CONCERNS RISE OVER FUNDRAISING
For the most part, Republicans are not overly worried that Weil could clinch the race — but they’re not overjoyed with Fine either.
“We are annoyed but not worried,” a GOP strategist told Politico. “Annoyed Fine hasn’t done jack s*** for himself and is counting on the ecosystem to bail him out.”
