President Trump’s two preferred candidates to replace former Representatives Matt Gaetz and Michael Waltz of Florida — who each left Congress to take a role in the new administration, but with different results — easily won their special election primaries on Tuesday evening, according to The Associated Press, setting Republicans up to expand their narrow House majority.
The two Republican candidates will move on to face Democratic opponents in a special general election on April 1, and will be strongly favored in districts that lean heavily Republican. Both easily lapped their Republican primary opponents in fund-raising and trumpeted Mr. Trump’s endorsement, which deterred bigger names from entering the races.
In Florida’s Sixth Congressional District, Randy Fine, a state senator, beat two others in the race to replace Mr. Waltz, who left the House of Representatives to serve as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser. Mr. Fine will face Josh Weil, a Democrat and a public-school teacher.
Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer, outpolled nine other candidates in the G.O.P. race to fill Mr. Gaetz’s seat, in the state’s First Congressional District. He will face Gay Valimont, a gun violence activist who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.
