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The election to replace former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who resigned from Congress before dropping his bid to be attorney general, has been set for April 1, 2025 — April Fools’ Day.
President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that he intended to nominate Gaetz to head the Department of Justice was controversial from the start. The firebrand from Florida’s deep-red Panhandle had an extremely thin résumé for the gig and had burned many a bridge with his GOP congressional colleagues.
But it was Gaetz’s alleged entanglement in a sprawling series of schemes and crimes — including accusations that he had sexually trafficked a 17-year-old girl — that brought the most noise to his nomination path. A House Ethics Committee investigation was opened into the allegations and rumors about the “highly damaging” contents of the committee’s report have been swirling for weeks.
Gaetz has denied all wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crimes so far, but the situation was too messy for both the Senators who balked at consenting to his nomination and the president-elect who has other controversial nominees to get across the finish line. Mediaite’s Diana Falzone reported earlier Friday that Gaetz had “misled” Trump’s team “about the extent of the misconduct allegations” against him.
Gaetz had resigned from Congress already and in that resignation letter had said that he did not intend to join the 119th Congress and get sworn back into office in January, despite winning re-election. After he dropped his bid for AG, speculation arose about whether he would decide to return to Congress, but Gaetz himself made his intentions clear to forgo that option Friday morning on Charlie Kirk’s podcast.
With Gaetz not returning to Congress, Florida’s 1st congressional district is an open seat. Under Florida law, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) issues an executive order calling for a special election, and the Florida Department of State sets the election calendar.
Spectrum News Florida Capitol correspondent Jason Delgado tweeted the news about the executive order and the election calendar as issued by FDOS, with qualifying for the seat occurring in December, the primary on January 28, 2025 — and the general election on April 1, 2025. That’s April Fools’ Day.
With a Cook Political Rating of R+19 in 2024, Florida’s first congressional district is the most heavily Republican district in the state and one of the most deep-red in the entire country, meaning that the January primary is where the real fight will be to fill the seat.
