Hello everyone, welcome to Drisco's election dissection, your election analysis for Across
the Circus.
I hope you all are doing well today, wherever you are.
Well, it's our first show of the year 2025 and our first show of the second Trump administration,
which as you may have noticed in the news has already been very busy.
And also something else that's busy is election season, which is finally started for this
year.
Now, as we mentioned back in our last show in December, it is an off year election this
year, meaning there aren't as many elections happening.
But that doesn't mean there's going to be some action along the way.
We're going to focus on a lot of international elections this year, and of course, special
congressional elections, which is exactly what we're going to talk about today.
For Tuesday, January 28th, there are two special primary elections for two House seats.
So let's dive right into it and let's pack our bags and head to the sunshine state, the
state of Florida.
One is more competitive than the other.
So we'll start first in the special election for Florida's sixth congressional district.
Now according to the online boundaries here, it's a pretty urban district and includes
the city of Daytona Beach, as well as some southern suburbs of Jacksonville.
And according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, Republicans are favored by 14 points.
So we're going to be talking about the Republican primary today, as whoever the Republican nominee
is, they will likely have the higher chance of winning in the general election, which
will take place on Tuesday, April 1st.
And that's no April fools.
Remember to vote.
So the former congressman from this seat was Representative Mike Waltz, who resigned on
Inauguration Day, January 20th, as he accepted a position in the Trump administration as
Trump's national security advisor.
And that job does not need any Senate approval, unlike most cabinet officials, so he was able
to get right to work.
As a result, the seat is vacant, although currently, state Senator Randy Fine has the edge when
it comes to name recognition, endorsements, and the little polls that have been done.
And with that, if he does win the primary, he'll have the likely edge in the April general.
But we'll move to a more competitive primary, and that's happening in Florida's first congressional
district.
Now this district covers the western panhandle of the state, anchored in the city of Pensacola,
along with the surrounding counties.
And also, this seat has an edge for Republicans of 19 points, according to the Cook Partisan
Voting Index, making this the most Republican district in the state of Florida.
And as we know, Florida's a pretty red state, so there you go.
Now the former representative for Florida's first congressional district was Republican
Representative Matt Gaetz.
You may have heard of him.
Well, he was in the news a lot over the past couple months, and to make a long story short,
former Representative Gaetz resigned on November 13th as he was expecting an appointment of
the United States Attorney General under the Trump administration.
However, a few weeks after that, he withdrew himself from consideration.
And although he was eligible to take his seat back on the first day of Congress on January
3rd because he won the 2024 election for the seat, he ultimately declined to do so, thus
making the seat vacant.
And with this being the most Republican seat in the state, it has a very heavy Republican
primary, although there are three major candidates to look at.
And they are 2024 candidate for this seat, Aaron Dimmick, Florida State Chief Financial
Officer Jimmy Patronus, and state Representative Joel Rudman.
Now there hasn't been a lot of polls, there has been fundraising, and Patronus seems to
have the lead there, as well as endorsements, including the endorsement of the now current
President Donald Trump, a Florida resident.
So that may help him in the primary, we'll just have to wait and see.
So those two primary elections will be taking place on Tuesday, January 28th, and the winners
of these primary elections will move on to the general election on Tuesday, April 1st.
And as always, I say, if you are a registered voter in the state of Florida, I don't care
who you vote for, but I do care that you vote.
So please do.
Thank you for listening to Driscoll's Election Dissection.
If you would like to learn more about the show, go online to AlgyvProductions.com slash
across the circus.
If you're willing to learn more about elections in your area, be sure to check out politicsone.com
as well as Ballotpedia.com and be sure to listen to us on any podcasting forum you like.
Thank you all for listening and I will see you all very soon.
This episode was brought to you by Algid Productions LLC. Thank you for listening!