Florida’s special elections give Trump, GOP leaders more reasons to sweat slim House majority

In a buoyant address to supporters moments after taking the oath of office in January, President Donald Trump ribbed House Speaker Mike Johnson over the number of Republican lawmakers he had tapped for administration posts — vacancies that only tightened the GOP’s already slender majority.

In a buoyant address to supporters moments after taking the oath of office in January, President Donald Trump ribbed House Speaker Mike Johnson over the number of Republican lawmakers he had tapped for administration posts — vacancies that only tightened the GOP’s already slender majority. “He didn’t mind,” Trump teased, as Johnson played along, pantomiming frustration to laughter from the crowd. “He could handle it.” But two months later, Trump’s levity has given way to unease. “We have a slim margin. We don’t want to take any chances. We don’t want to experiment,” he said Friday when explaining why his team abruptly pulled the nomination of one of those representatives, Elise Stefanik of New York, to be United Nations ambassador. Stefanik’s sudden demotion back to Congress comes as Republicans are also sweating a pair of special elections Tuesday in Florida to fill seats vacated by two more House members previously tapped by Trump. One race in the state’s 6th Congressional District is to replace national security adviser Michael Waltz — who has become a focal point of White House frustration over his role initiating a Signal chat, accidentally including a reporter, where top administration officials discussed sensitive plans to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen. Tuesday’s other winner will succeed former Rep. Matt Gaetz, whom Trump picked to be his attorney general before allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use levied by a House ethics panel derailed his nomination. Gaetz, who denied the allegations but nevertheless withdrew himself from consideration, represented Florida’s 1st Congressional District.