Florida state Sen. Randy Fine. Photo: Reuters

Florida state Sen. Randy Fine, a Republican, prevailed in Tuesday’s special election for Florida’s 6th Congressional District, cruising past Democratic challenger Josh Weil by a commanding 54.7 percent to 42.7 percent margin. 

Fine will assume the seat previously held by former Rep. Mike Waltz in the US House of Representatives, which was vacated after Waltz departed to serve as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. Weil, a public-school employee and first-time candidate, raised almost 10 times the amount of funds as Fine, and ran on a stridently progressive platform. 

Though Fine easily won Tuesday night’s race, critics pointed out that Trump carried the district by a staggering 30 points in last November’s presidential race, raising questions regarding the Republican’s popularity amid national frustration over stubborn inflation and potential tariffs. Prior to the special election, Republicans expressed concern that Weil could notch a stunning upset over Fine, pointing to polls that showed the schoolteacher with a slim lead in the competition. 

Fine’s ascent to the halls of Congress will help bolster the slim Republican lead in the House of Representatives, helping the party advance more of Trump’s legislative agenda. Moreover, Fine is also likely to become one of the most vocal supporters of Israel in the federal government. 

Fine, who is Jewish, has established himself as a stalwart ally of Israel. Following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, Fine has spearheaded efforts to uproot antisemitism within the state of Florida. 

In August 2024, he chided Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for taking a trip to Ireland, repudiating the country as “antisemitic.”

“I was certainly disappointed to see not only folks go to what is clearly an antisemitic country that supports Muslim terror, but I was also disappointed that the game wasn’t cancelled, which it should have been,” Fine said. 

Ireland has been a fierce critic of Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, even joining a legal case brought by South Africa to the International Court of Justice accusing the Jewish state of perpetrating a genocide in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The move, which came after the Irish government in May officially recognized a Palestinian state, led Israel to shutter its embassy in Dublin.

In August, Fine launched an investigation into alleged antisemitic and pro-terrorist ideology within instructional materials at Florida public universities, claiming that the state’s higher education institutions use “openly antisemitic” textbooks. Fine suggested that activist professors were using textbooks that were indoctrinating students with anti-Israel sentiment. 

Fine also has an extensive history of criticizing Islam.

Following the New Year’s Day ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in New Orleans, Fine raised eyebrows by repudiating Islam as a “fundamentally broken and dangerous culture.”

During a March 2025 public hearing, he told a constituent wearing a keffiyeh to “enjoy your terrorist rag,” sparking boos from the audience. 

He also chided his special election opponent, Weil, who is Muslim, as “Jihad Josh” and accused the schoolteacher of being a supporter of “Muslim terror.”

Fine has also swiped at his future colleagues, US Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), two of the most vocal critics of Israel in federal government, tweeting “#BombsAway” at the progressive lawmakers.

Fine’s victory also denies Weil, a strident critic of Israel, a seat in Congress. 

Weil has publicly condemned Israel and vowed to oppose efforts to provide the Jewish state with US aid if elected to Congress. In 2021, during a failed run for US Senate, Weil slammed “Israel’s state sanctioned violence against Palestinians.” He also called for then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “immediately intervene to stop Jerusalem expulsions” and to “end US military aid to Israel.”

That same year, Weil accused Israel of committing a “war crime” for forcing “Palestinians from their homes to make room for Israeli settlers” in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. 

“There is no justification for this abhorrent assault on human rights,” he wrote.

At the time, the Sheikh Jarrah area of Jerusalem was embroiled in a battle between landlords, squatters, and delinquent renters from a number of houses with tenants whose leases had expired. The landlords engaged in a drawn-out legal battle to successfully evict the squatters and delinquent renters. Critics argued that the evictions were an example of anti-Arab discrimination and that Israel should force the landlords to keep the squatters and delinquent renters in place.

In 2022, Weil posted on X/Twitter that Israelis “murder children in their homes.”

In February, Weil appeared on a YouTube show hosted by Jen Perelman, a staunch anti-Zionist who has accused Israel of “genocide.”