In a typical election cycle, Democrats would pay little attention, or money, to Florida’s 1st and 6th Congressional District races.
But with the party eager — maybe even desperate — to prove its viability amid leadership turmoil and a reckoning over its future, that’s not the case in the districts’ two special elections.
Democratic candidates Gay Valimont and Joshua Weil raised over $16 million combined as of mid-March, fueled by hundreds of thousands of small-dollar donors from across the country, for next Tuesday’s races to replace former Reps. Mike Waltz and Matt Gaetz. Waltz is now President Donald Trump’s national security adviser and Gaetz resigned after being tapped as attorney general — a nomination that quickly imploded over long-standing allegations he had sex with a minor.