Today’s quote comes to us from Ken Martin, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair. It was stated after the results were in for last night’s two special House elections in Florida – one to replace Republican Matt Gaetz and the other to replace Rpublican Mike Waltz.
Martin’s reaction to how these two special elections turned out?
“Republicans everywhere know a reckoning is coming. Democrats are taking the majority in 2026.”
Wow, the Republicans must have taken some whomping last night, right?
Uh………..no.
While it is true that Republicans won the elections by lesser margins than there were in November, both won in landslides.
From NPR’s account of the races):
In the First district in the area around Pensacola, Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz defeated Valimont by 32 points in November. President Trump nominated Gaetz to be his Attorney General. Gaetz later withdrew and left Congress, leaving his seat open. Patronis jumped into the race but was heavily outraised by Valimont, who drew support from Democrats across the country. Patronis’ margin of victory was about 15 percentage points, 17 points lower than that seen by Gaetz in November.
In the Sixth district in central Florida, Fine beat Weil by about 14 points. That’s a significantly narrower margin than that seen by then-Congressman Mike Waltz in November. Waltz defeated his Democratic opponent by 33 points. He left the seat vacant when he was named Trump’s national security adviser. Weil raised ten times more money for his campaign than Fine and Democrats hoped they could pull out a victory in a red district.
As you can see, Ken Martin’s joyous review of the election results is based on the fact that, despite both his candidates dramatically outspending their Republican opponents, the Republicans still won in landslides…but lesser landslides than in November.
Two landslide losses: that’s something to celebrate about? To predict a 2026 victory over? Not in any sane world.
I award Ken Martin Quote Of The Day honors, for showing us how far from reality a political operative can go in an effort to pretend two losses constitute good news.
Oh, did I mention that, based on my reading of about a half-dozen accounts of these elections, our wonderful “neutral” media are, for the most part, agreeing that this can be seen as good news for Democrats?
Let me assure you: Republicans are hoping – dreaming – that Democrats will have similarly “good news” all over the country in 2026.
