The Republican nervousness around the special election in Florida’s deep-red 6th Congressional District was enough to bring Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin to the area to canvass over the weekend.
Buoyed by strong performances in recent special elections, including a narrow state Senate win in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the DNC is now turning its attention to the race between Republican state Sen. Randy Fine and progressive teacher Josh Weil.
“I wanted to come out to make sure that we help close strong in this election,” Martin, a longtime Democratic tactician and Minnesota state party leader, told Florida Playbook in a phone interview after spending the morning in DeLand.
More than halfway through the 25-minute interview, however, Martin hadn’t brought up Fine once. When Florida Playbook pointed this out, he said: “I haven’t heard much about him at the doors, to be honest with you. And so I think this race is about Donald Trump and Elon Musk and people’s deep dissatisfaction with what’s happening.”
What are voters bending his ear about instead? Concerns about how life is still very expensive and could become more so under looming tariffs, he said, and fears from seniors who worry Trump will cut Social Security.
Trump promised repeatedly that he wouldn’t touch people’s benefits, but that hasn’t stopped Democrats from accusing Republicans downballot of wanting to cut Social Security anyway. Seniors have reported seeing their services impacted through longer wait times when they call the agency after a swath of federal workforce firings.
“There’s a lot of buyer’s remorse right now amongst the Republican base and voters who felt like Donald Trump was actually going to do something to improve their lives,” Martin said, “but he hasn’t.”
While Martin said he thought Weil could win, he also said a close race would send a message about how voters were feeling about Trump’s presidency. The White House did not respond to a request for comment, but Gov. Ron DeSantis recently disputed such assessments, instead blaming the closer-than-expected race on a “candidate-specific issue.” (It’s not clear whether certain other factors may be at play, including whether GOP voters are holding out against Fine because he clashed with DeSantis over the last year.)
Nevertheless, Martin’s comments help show how Democrats are messaging and strategizing as the party struggles to regain its footing after Trump’s November victory. Martin said Florida and the rest of the South were hugely important to Democrats given population growth. The state alone could gain as many as five congressional seats “and so we can’t give up on Florida,” he said.
Martin acknowledged that overcoming Republicans’ 1.2 million voter registration advantage wouldn’t be easy. But Martin added a good place to focus would be on unregistered voters. He declined to share just how much the DNC is spending in the special election, other than to say it was a “six-figure investment.”
This isn’t the first time national Democrats have promised to take Florida seriously. They said repeatedly leading up to the 2024 election that Florida was in play — even as Vice President Kamala Harris never visited the state after she became the presidential nominee, and even as Democrats spent little cash here.
So, what’s different this time? “This is a new DNC,” Martin said. “I’m a new chair. I ran on a platform of getting the DNC out of D.C. and not focusing just on seven battleground states and a few congressional races. I ran on a 50-state strategy, which means we are contesting races up and down the ballot, not just congressional races, but local races, state races, federal races, and that we’re going to compete everywhere.”
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