House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries believes that 60 GOP House seats are now potentially in play after the Florida special election results.
Jeffries theorized that a blue wave could be on the way, as the Republican Party reels from its special election underperformance in Wisconsin and Florida.
The party is collectively sweating after Democrats made inroads in two deep-red Florida districts. And if this trend continues, it could leave 60 U.S. House seats as “targets,” in regions where Donald Trump underperformed, Jeffries said.
After suffering a crushing defeat in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, the GOP held on to two Florida House seats on Tuesday. But, despite Republican state senator Randy Fine winning the race to replace National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Republican Jimmy Patronis also winning Matt Gaetz’s old seat in the state’s first district, the results were closer than expected.
Jeffries told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on The Last Word that Tuesday’s election saw “an incredible over-performance by the two Democratic candidates in two Ruby red districts in Florida.”
Jeffries added that the results could point to a rising blue wave in the 2026 midterm elections. “One point, Lawrence, that should have my Republican colleagues quaking in their boots in the Florida Six race, which was a Trump plus 30 district with a margin, was cut in half,” he said, referencing huge gains by Democrat school teacher Josh Weil, who commanded 42.7 percent of the votes up against Randy Fine.
With 95 percent of the votes counted, according to AP, it looks like a 14-point victory. But, notably, Trump won the deep-red district by more than 30 points four months ago.
“And we’ll see where it ultimately lands,” Jeffries added. “But we know at minimum, it was cut in half to around 15 to 16 points.”
Patronis, meanwhile, beat Gay Valimont by 15 points, with around 57 percent of the vote. However, in the 1st District no Republican has won with less than 64 percent of the vote in nearly 25 years.
“There are 60 Republicans in the House of Representatives who currently represent districts where Trump did worse than 15 or 16 points, and every single one of those districts, there’s now a target on the backs of those House Republicans,” Jeffries warned.
He lauded “Democratic energy and over performance,” that he said has been around since early special elections began in January.
“[We are seeing] Democratic energy and over performance, coupled with Independent swing voters and even moderate Republicans breaking for the Democratic candidates, and rejecting the extremism, the outrageous behavior of this administration and their effort to harm everyday Americans,” he said.
Florida’s Republican state Sen. Randy Fine greets people after winning the 6th District race to replace GOP former Rep. Michael Waltz. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
He added that in both Wisconsin and Florida, results serve as a “rejection” of Elon Musk and his “extremism,” that is—his slash and burn approach to cutting federal funding through the Department of Government Efficiency.
“There’s no doubt about it. You know, Elon Musk was also very involved in these Florida races. And notwithstanding the fact that these are safe Republican districts, the results that we have seen can be interpreted, we believe, as a rejection of him and his extremism as well,” Jeffries said.
“This is somebody who has said he wants to take a chainsaw to social security, and he’s called social security a Ponzi scheme. It’s not a Ponzi scheme, Elon. He’s a living, breathing Ponzi scheme. Project 2025 is a Ponzi scheme. And that’s what the voters clearly believe. Increasingly all across the country.”
Trump himself last week highlighted the importance of these elections, telling voters during a town hall that the result of the race to replace Matt Gaetz “will help determine whether the radical left will grind Congress to a halt, which is what they want to do—just stop everything, all the progress that we’ve made.”
