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2025 Florida's 1st congressional district special election

The 2025 Florida's 1st congressional district special election was held on April 1, 2025, to fill a vacant seat in Florida's 1st congressional district 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 Florida's 6th congressional district. 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 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 in this district during the 21st century.

The 1st district 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.

Jimmy Patronis, former chief financial officer of Florida (2017–2025)
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
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)
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)

Republican primary results by county: .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{} Patronis 60–70% 70–80%

Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	33,742	65.7
	Republican	5,099	9.9
	Republican	3,423	6.7
	Republican	3,093	6.0
	Republican	2,548	5.0
	Republican	1,287	2.5
	Republican	743	1.4
	Republican	634	1.2
	Republican	574	1.1
	Republican	187	0.4
51,330	100.0

Gay Valimont, athletic trainer and nominee for this district in 2024
Stephen Broden, pastor, Constitution Party nominee for vice president in 2024, and Republican nominee for Texas's 30th congressional district in 2010
Richard Paul Dembinsky, engineer and perennial candidate
Stanley Gray, retiree
Jonathan Green, mediator
Stan McDaniels, landscaping contractor

Campaign finance reports as of March 12, 2025
Jimmy Patronis (R)	$2,126,409	$1,311,824	$814,585
Gay Valimont (D)	$6,484,474	$4,315,536	$2,177,181

Party	Candidate	Votes	%	.mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}±%
	Republican	97,370	56.86%	−9.17%
	Democratic	72,375	42.26%	+8.29%
	Independent	1,384	0.81%	N/A
	Write-in	88	0.05%	N/A
	Write-in	31	0.02%	N/A
171,248	100%

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%	11,551

2025 United States House of Representatives elections
List of special elections to the United States House of Representatives

Official campaign websites

Jimmy Patronis (R) for Congress
Gay Valimont (D) for Congress

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