Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin was in Florida this weekend campaigning for his party’s candidates in the special elections on Tuesday. While campaigning, Martin said Democrats are committed to investing in Florida.
He was campaigning for Josh Weil, the Democratic candidate in Florida’s 6th Congressional District running against Republican State Senator Randy Fine. The other special election Tuesday features North Florida Democrat Gay Valimont versus Florida’s former CFO and Republican Jimmy Patronis.
Both seats went to the GOP in 2024 by 30 plus points, but Martin said it's important to challenge every race in the country.
“There's no such thing as a perpetual blue state or a perpetual red state,” he said. “We have to make investments of time, energy and money there to start to reverse course, and part of that is again standing up year-round organizing, making sure that we're registering voters and decreasing the partisan registration gap that the Republicans and advantage that they have here, and making sure that at the end of the day, we're investing money here,” he said.
Despite being underdogs, the Democratic candidates have outraised the Republicans a combined $15 million to $3 million.
But in recent years as Florida has turned redder, prominent national Democrat organizations have reduced funding for campaigns in the state. Florida went to President Trump by 13 points in 2024, the largest margin of victory in the state since 1988.
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