The 2025 Florida's 1st congressional district special election was held on April 1, 2025, to fill a vacant seat in previously occupied by Matt Gaetz, who resigned on November 13, 2024, after president-elect Donald Trump nominated him for attorney general of the United States. Gaetz later withdrew his nomination for attorney general on November 21. The following day, Gaetz announced he would not return to Congress. He had been reelected for a sixth term earlier in the month, but declined to take his seat. It was considered a safe Republican district.
The election was held alongside a concurrent special election for . The race was called for Patronis almost immediately after polls closed. Despite Patronis' victory, Democrats significantly improved their margins in this election, overperforming their 2024 result by 17.4 percentage points and flipping Escambia County, Valimont's home county and home to the district's largest city, Pensacola. Valimont became the first Democrat running for this district to win the county since Earl Hutto in 1992. This is the strongest Democratic performance since Hutto's retirement in 1994; no Democrat since then had managed as much as 40 percent of the vote.
District profile The takes in the westernmost area of the Florida panhandle, encompassing Escambia, Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa counties, as well as about half of Walton County. A significant portion of the district's population are servicemen and women of the U.S. military, due in large part to the Naval Air Station near Pensacola, Eglin AFB near Niceville, and the nearby commuter towns of Navarre and Fort Walton Beach.
The district was given a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of R+19 in 2022, making it the most Republican district in Florida. In the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump won the district with 68.1%, while then-incumbent Gaetz was re-elected with 66.0% of the vote in 2024.
Republican primary Candidates Nominee Jimmy Patronis, former chief financial officer of Florida (2017–2025)
Eliminated in primary Aaron Dimmock, director for leadership programs at the University of West Florida's AWKO Center for Leadership and candidate for this district in 2024 Kevin Gaffney, teacher Jeff Macey, software engineer Greg Merk, pilot and candidate for this district in 2020 and 2022 John Mills, businessman and candidate for this district in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 Jeff Peacock, former policy director for U.S. representative Lee Zeldin Joel Rudman, former state representative from the 3rd district (2022–2025) Michael Dylan Thompson, attorney Gene Valentino, former Escambia County commissioner
Withdrawn John Frankman, former Green Beret (endorsed Patronis) Keith Gross, former assistant state attorney for Florida's 18th circuit court and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2024 (endorsed Patronis) Nathan Nelson, former director of military affairs for Matt Gaetz (endorsed Patronis) Michelle Salzman, state representative from the 1st district (2020–present) (endorsed Patronis) Jeff Witt, pilot (endorsed Patronis)
Declined Alex Andrade, state representative from the 2nd district (2018–present) Doug Broxson, former state senator from the 1st district (2016–2024) Don Gaetz, state senator from the 1st district (2006–2016, 2024–present), former president of the Florida Senate (2012–2014), and father of Matt Gaetz Matt Gaetz, former U.S. representative from this district (2017–2024) Bernadette Pittman, construction company CEO (endorsed Rudman) D. C. Reeves, Mayor of Pensacola (2022–present) Frank White, former state representative from the 2nd district (2016–2018) (endorsed Patronis)
Endorsements
Results
Democratic primary Candidates Nominee Gay Valimont, athletic trainer and nominee for this district in 2024
Endorsements
Others Independents Declared Stephen Broden, pastor, Constitution Party nominee for vice president in 2024, and Republican nominee for in 2010
Write-in candidates Declared Richard Paul Dembinsky, engineer and perennial candidate Stanley Gray, retiree Jonathan Green, mediator Stan McDaniels, landscaping contractor
General election Fundraising Campaign finance reports as of March 12, 2025CandidateRaisedSpentCash on handJimmy Patronis (R)$2,126,409$1,311,824$814,585Gay Valimont (D)$6,484,474$4,315,536$2,177,181Source: Federal Election Commission
Results
By County County Jimmy PatronisRepublican Gay ValimontDemocratic Stephen BrodenIndependent Margin Total votes cast # % # % # % # % Escambia 35,849 48.10% 38,126 51.16% 520 0.70% 2,277 3.06% 74,530 Okaloosa 26,047 60.78% 16,407 38.28% 375 0.88% 9,640 22.50% 42,857 Santa Rosa 27,038 63.90% 14,774 34.92% 443 1.05% 12,264 28.98% 42,310 Walton 8,436 73.03% 3,068 26.56% 46 0.40% 5,368 46.47% 11,551Totals97,37056.86%72,37542.26%1,3840.81%24,99514.60%171,248
See also 2025 United States House of Representatives elections List of special elections to the United States House of Representatives
Notes
References
External links Official campaign websites Jimmy Patronis (R) for Congress Gay Valimont (D) for Congress