While Democrats lost both special Congressional elections in Florida, the party clearly overperformed, narrowing the margins considerably in deep-red districts. The Republican victories, expected by most analysts, gave some relief to GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has struggled to pass legislation with a tiny majority.

In Florida’s Sixth District, Republican Randy Fine defeated his Democratic opponent Josh Weil by 14 points. While that appears to be a comfortable victory, that is less than half the margin tallied by the Republicans last fall, when President Donald Trump and Mike Waltz, the current national security adviser who previously held that seat, won by over 30 points.

Even more troubling to the GOP was Democrat Gay Valimont’s performance in Florida’s First Congressional District, where she lost to Republican Jimmy Patronis. The Republican margin there was 14.8 points, only five months after Trump won the same district by 37 points. In Florida too, Democrats flipped a major Trump county. Valimont won Escambia County -- where Trump won by nearly 20 points last November -- by just over three points on Tuesday.

“When Democrats are outperforming or winning, it’s a big psychological boost in a time when Democrats are feeling pretty low,” noted Democratic pollster John Anzalone in a New York Times interview. “They’re going to be dealing with the political environment that Trump has created, which is not good right now for Republicans.”