Florida State House Representative Randy Fine speaks during a press conference where Governor DeSantis signs five state house bills into law at Cambridge Christian School in Tampa, Florida, U.S. May 17, 2023.
Octavio Jones | Reuters
Republican state Sen. Randy Fine has prevailed in a special congressional election in Florida on Tuesday, NBC News projects, though the race is shaping up to be closer than November’s results in the deeply Republican district.
The 6th District race was giving some Republicans heartburn, with Weil vastly outraising Fine and Fine slow to launch TV ads. President Donald Trump carried the district, which includes Daytona Beach, by 30 points in November, but outside Republican groups hit the airwaves in the final days as the race appeared to be competitive.
Trump himself also engaged to help turn out his supporters, as Democrats looked to leverage lower turnout in a special election and energy among the party’s grassroots to oppose the president. Trump issued multiple Truth Social posts and held two tele-town halls last week for Fine and Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, the Republican in the 1st District special election in the Panhandle to replace former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz. Polls close in the 1st District at 8 p.m. ET.
Fine is a staunch Trump ally, having switched his endorsement in the 2024 presidential primary from home-state Gov. Ron DeSantis to Trump. Fine wrote in an op-ed that he, as a Jewish Republican, did not believe DeSantis had done enough to combat antisemitism. DeSantis represented the 6th District in Congress before running for governor.
Fine’s decision to endorse Trump earned him the president’s support ahead of the special primary election in January, helping Fine easily win the GOP nod. And he touted his ties to Trump in the race.
“I stand behind you 100% and you’ll have no greater warrior for your agenda than me,” Fine said of Trump in last week’s tele-town hall, later adding that the race could determine “whether you have the votes in Congress you need to get the job done.”
Fine’s support for Trump appealed to Linda Morgan, one Republican voter who cast her ballot Tuesday morning for Fine.
“If he admits he’s going to help President Trump do the job that we elected him for, then I’m all in,” Morgan told NBC News outside a polling place in Daytona Beach.
Weil, a public school teacher who had raised more than $10 million as of March 31 according to recent fundraising reports, had leveraged his strong fundraising to launch attacks against Fine on potential GOP-led cuts to entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicaid, in a district where nearly 30% of the population is over the age of 65.
Trump attempted to counter those attacks in last week’s tele-town hall, telling supporters, “Randy will vote to defend Social Security, protect Medicare, cut your taxes, end inflation, fully fund our border security agenda.”
Fine had raised $2 million as of March 31, including $600,000 from the candidate himself, fueling some GOP concerns that the race could be closer than expected.
Fine also lives more than 100 miles south of the seat he was running in and never made real inroads in the region, and he did not start running TV ads until late in the campaign.
That worried Republicans, but Weil’s huge financial support is what bred panic among Republicans and the White House.
“The White House was late in learning what almost every Floridian involved in politics knew,” said a longtime Florida operative involved with the race and familiar with the Trump orbit’s thinking. Once they realized Fine’s vulnerabilities, the source said, “they engaged at an enormous level and expended the necessary resources to win it.”
“It was all hands on deck,” the person added.
That effort included a huge push from Florida Republicans to travel to the district to help get out the vote for Fine, and a late influx of cash to get Fine on TV and help blunt the money disadvantage he had against Weil.
“Panic and money can solve a lot of problems,” said a Republican consultant working on Fine’s campaign.
