PENSACOLA, Fla.—Republicans have retained control of Florida’s 1st Congressional District as Jimmy Patronis was declared the winner of the special election to replace former Rep. Matt Gaetz on April 1.
Polls closed at 7 p.m. CT, and Patronis was declared the winner 22 minutes after polls closed and 74 percent of the vote counted, and Patronis commanding more than 52 percent of that tally. At the same time, Democrat Gay Valimont was trailing with 45.7 percent of the vote.
Patronis’s race was run in a largely Republican district. It mostly consists of Escambia, Okaloosa, and Santa Rosa counties, where registered Republican voters outnumber Democrat voters by 102,948 to 65,762; 88,875 to 26,122; and 92,293 to 22,299, respectively. Escabmia’s voter roll was last updated on March 1, while Okaloosa and Santa Rosa rolls were updated on election day….