WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tuesday was the first test for President Donald Trump in his second term. Voters took to the polls in Florida and Wisconsin to decide closely watched races.
In a special election for two House seats that were left vacant by former Representative Matt Gaetz, who stepped away after Trump initially nominated him to lead the Department of Justice and former Representative Mike Waltz, who is now Trump’s National Security Advisor, voters are keeping those seats red. It will give Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R- LA) a little more breathing room in an already closely divided House.
“Both districts Trump won by 30 percentage points or more and it looks like the Democrats pulled within 14 percent or so, essentially closing in that margin,” said Dr. Todd Belt, professor and director of political management at George Washington University. “But as we say in politics: there’s no such thing as a moral victory. If you lose, you lose. You get no power. Even though the Democrats probably feel pretty good about that, they can feel like they’ll have a better position nationally, but they didn’t get those seats.”
In Wisconsin, a state the President won in November, a conservative judge backed by Trump and Elon Musk, lost by ten percentage points. Musk reportedly poured in millions of dollars into that race.
“I think public sentiment is turning against Donald Trump and I think public sentiment has turned against Elon Musk because he has a very high profile in his support for the Wisconsin race,” said Dr. Belt. “And I think the other real big story here is money doesn’t deliver in politics. If you look at the Democrats, they vastly outraised and outspent the Republicans in Florida and they didn’t get those seats; and of course, you have on the other side, Elon Musk dumping a lot of money into that supreme court race and his side didn’t win either. So remember, it’s still about people and their votes.”
There are reports that Elon Musk will be done with his work in the near future. The President told reporters that Musk will go back to focusing on running his companies.
