Voters are making their voices heard on several special elections Tuesday, some with national implications, and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna wins a fight with Republican leadership on proxy voting push. 

Polls begin to close in Special election races

Florida voters are deciding who will represent them in two congressional districts.

And who wins House seats in Districts 1 and 6 could have an effect on the political balance of power in our nation’s capital.

With a slim Republican majority in the U.S. House, Democrats across the country see these two races as a way to seize on what they see as discontent against President Donald Trump and his agenda so far in his second term.

In the special election to fill the House seat for Congressional District 1 in the panhandle, the seat vacated by former Rep. Matt Gaetz, outgoing state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis faces Democratic gun control activist Gay Valimont and no party affiliation candidate Stephen Broden.

In the special election to fill house seat for Congressional District 6, voters in parts of Lake, Marion, Putnam, Flagler, St. Johns and Volusia counties are deciding who will fill the seat vacated by Mike Waltz, who became Trump’s national security advisor.

Republican State Sen. Randy Fine faces Democrat Josh Weil, as well as Libertarian candidate Andrew Parrott and NPA candidate Randall Terry.

The Democrats in both races have out-raised and out-spent their GOP counterparts, and in House District 6, recent polls show Weil is in a competitive race with Fine.

Trump won each district by more than 30 percentage points just last November, so Democratic victories will be difficult, but political analyst Aubrey Jewett says even a close race could be a referendum on the Trump agenda.

“The stakes are very big for both of these races in terms of control of the United States Congress, and just in terms of the political narrative around the country as to whether the public is generally supportive of what president trump is doing, or not,” Jewett said.

Democrats are encouraged by high mail-in ballot totals, but Republicans have outpaced them on in-person early voting, and the state GOP chair believes they’ll have more voters Tuesday.

Luna wins battle with GOP leadership over proxy vote bill

House Republican leadership sought to block Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s discharge petition, paving the way for new moms and dads in the chamber to vote by proxy for up to 12 weeks.

A discharge petition — an uncommon method for forcing legislation to the House floor that bypasses leadership — filed by Luna, officially garnered 218 signatures from fellow House members, her office announced last month, reaching the threshold needed to send the measure to the floor without the speaker. 

Luna prevailed in blocking leadership’s rule change, 222 to 206.

The maneuver’s success is rare in history. Before 2022, data kept by Brookings Institution found only 4% of the hundreds of discharge petitions filed since 1935 succeeded, though lawmakers were successful in forcing a vote via the method just last year on the Social Security Fairness Act. 

A dozen House Republicans, including Luna, bucked Johnson to sign onto the petition while the rest of the signatures came from Democrats. 

“I was raised to where if you see something wrong, you say something, and right now I see something wrong so I’m saying something," Luna said. "And I think that it’s important to have family voices in Washington, but it’s also equally important to ensure that female representatives are given a platform and that we can still vote. I mean, you can’t help childbirth. It’s a very natural thing."

Luna, who gave birth to a child in 2023, has been fighting to allow new moms in Congress the opportunity to vote by proxy, but the effort was opposed by Republican leadership, so she worked with Democrats on a discharge petition garnering 218 signatures to force a vote.

That all came to a head Tuesday when House Leadership tried to pass a rule change to block it.

The bill in question, introduced by Luna, Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., would give lawmakers who are new or expecting parents a 12-week window in which they do not need to be present at the Capitol to vote, but instead are allowed to cast them remotely, also known as proxy voting. 

“I know there’s a new laptop class in America that seems to operate increasingly in a virtual space, but that’s simply not a fact of life for most American workers, and I believe Congress should live by that standard,” Rep. Virginia Foxx said about the proposal.

“When I was pregnant, I couldn’t fly towards the end of my due date because it was unsafe for Sam ... and I was unable to actually have my vote represented here and my constituents represented after giving birth. I was faced with an impossible decision,” Rep. Brittany Petterson said about the plan.

It’s unclear when the discharge petition will ultimately be taken up. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says there will be no further floor votes this week.

DeSantis and Florida Republicans appear to disagree on carbon policy

There appears to be a growing amount of disconnect between Florida Republicans and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

On social media, the governor is criticizing Florida GOP members, saying they are wasting their time as a supermajority.

There’s new Republican leadership in the Florida House and the Senate, and thus far, they’ve shown that they’re willing to stand their ground against the governor.

“There are so many things that Floridians want to see get done," DeSantis said. "Everything ranging from property tax relief to boater freedom. Don’t indulge the left with carbon sequestration."

Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon dioxide, usually in the ground. Florida might soon study that science, which proponents say would help the environment, and potentially climate change as well.

“I think it provides Florida-specific data which will allow us to move forward and really support our natural resources. Because Florida’s natural resources are an asset in their own right,” State Rep. Debra Tendrich said.

Florida Democrats like the idea, and, surprisingly, Florida Republicans are on board, too.

“This is a great bill and really, really boils down to resiliency in the state of Florida again, and making sure the state is ready for the tourism that comes here for the beautiful beach, the mangroves, which protect us from floods. So I like the bill. So thank you,” State Rep. Jim Mooney said.

It might seem minor, but this is yet another split between lawmakers and DeSantis.

Thus far, they’ve sparred on immigration, the sales tax, property taxes and more.

Last week, the Florida House voted to override four of the governor’s line-item vetoes from last year’s budget.

Then, House Speaker Danny Perez put forward a plan to cut the state’s sales tax by nearly a full percent, a plan that could potentially stand in the way of the governor’s stated goal of eliminating property taxes.

Perez has also reportedly expressed concerns about another of the governor’s plans: rolling back child labor regulations to help replace lost workers caused by a crackdown on undocumented immigrants.