Florida’s First Congressional District has 309,270 Republicans, but only 11,178 have voted in the GOP primary that will likely decide who will replace Matt Gaetz. The election day is six days away on Tuesday, Jan. 28, and only 3.6% of Republicans have cast their votes.
Escambia County accounts for more than half the votes cast – 6,099, thanks to 3,597 vote-by-mail ballots received. The county still believes in voting mail, accounting for 55% of all vote-by-mail voting.
- During the 2024 General Election, Escambia had 29.35% vote on Election Day.
- The weather prediction for Jan. 28 is partly cloudy with a high temperature of 58 degrees.
Four candidates give Pensacola as their address on their filing papers: Aaron Dimmock, Greg Merk, Michael Dylan Thompson and Gene Valentino. They will split the Escambia County vote.
Jimmy Patronis is concerned about the low turnout and sent out this text message yesterday:
ELECTION ALERT
Calling all FL-01 Republicans! There is a primary election on Tuesday, January 28th in the special election for Florida’s 1st Congressional District, and we need your help.
The ONLY Trump-endorsed candidate for Congress in this election is Jimmy Patronis, and we need all patriots to get out and vote to send Jimmy to congress to support President Trump’s MAGA agenda!
Early voting is OPEN until January 25th. Find your polling place here: https://dos.fl.gov/elections/for-voters/check-your-voter-status-and-polling-place/voter-precinct-lookup/
For more info: www.conservativesforamericanexcellence.com
| County | Registered | Early | Total | % | |
| Escambia | 102284 | 3597 | 2502 | 6099 | 6.0% |
| Santa Rosa | 91205 | 942 | 1386 | 2328 | 2.6% |
| Okaloosa | 88385 | 1715 | 521 | 2236 | 2.5% |
| Walton | 27396 | 276 | 239 | 515 | 1.9% |
| Total | 309270 | 6530 | 4648 | 11178 | 3.6% |
BACKGROUND: Florida’s 1st Congressional District includes all of Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa counties and portions of Walton County. Republicans have held the seat since 1994 when little-known Pensacola attorney Joe Scarborough beat veteran politician Lois Benson after Democrat Earl Hutto announced he would not run for a ninth term. Since 2000, more than two-thirds of the district has voted Republican in the presidential elections.
Escambia County Supervisor of Elections Robert Bender projected a 24% turnout among the county’s 102,284 eligible Republican voters, similar to last March’s Presidential Preference Primary. This represents an increase of about 8,000 registered Republican voters over the past year.
The county will maintain its Election Day operations across 80 precincts. “There’ll still be 80 precincts, 72 locations open, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” Bender confirmed. However, early voting sites have been reduced after low turnout in March. He noted, “There were only 318 people that used those three locations over an eight-day period.”