Facing a razor-thin Republican majority in the House, President Donald Trump says he pulled GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination to serve as United Nations ambassador because he doesn’t “want to take any chances.”
The president made his comments Friday as he answered questions at the White House, one day after announcing in a social media post that he was pulling the nomination of Stefanik, a Republican from New York and top Trump ally in the House, due to concerns about passing his agenda through the chamber.
“I said, ‘Elise, would you do me a favor? We cannot take a chance. We have a slim margin,’” Trump told reporters.
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Trump’s move comes amid concerns by the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill over next week’s special congressional elections in Florida.
Voters in two congressional districts in Florida will head to the polls on Tuesday, as Republicans aim to keep control of both solidly red seats and give themselves slightly more breathing room in the House.
The elections are in Florida’s 1st and 6th Congressional Districts, which Trump carried by 37 and 30 points in last year’s presidential election.
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But the Democratic candidates have vastly outraised the Republican nominees, and polling in recent days suggested that the race in the 6th District was within the margin of error.
The GOP currently holds a 218-213 majority in the House, with two vacant seats where Republicans stepped down and two where Democratic lawmakers died in March.
“When it comes to Florida, you have two races, and they seem to be good,” Trump said.
But pointing to the massive fundraising advantage by the Democrat candidates over the GOP contenders, Trump raised concerns, saying “You never know what happens in a case like that.”
Jimmy Patronis, the Florida Chief Financial Officer, is favored over Democrat Gay Valimont in a multi-candidate field in the race to fill the vacant seat in the 1st CD, which is located in the far northwestern corner of Florida in the Panhandle region.
Republican Matt Gaetz, who won re-election in the district in last November’s elections, resigned from office weeks later after Trump selected him to be his nominee for attorney general in his second administration.
Gaetz later withdrew himself from cabinet consideration amid controversy.
But it’s the race in the 6th CD, which is located on Florida’s Atlantic coast from Daytona Beach to just south of Saint Augustine and inland to the outskirts of Ocala, that is really raising concerns among some in the GOP.
The race is to succeed Republican Michael Waltz, who stepped down from the seat on Jan. 20 after Trump named him his national security adviser.
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Republican state Sen. Randy Fine is facing off against teacher Josh Weil, a Democrat, in a multi-candidate field.
Weil grabbed plenty of national attention in recent weeks by topping Fine in the campaign cash battle by roughly a ten-to-one margin.
The cash discrepancy in the 6th CD race spurred GOP-aligned outside groups to make last-minute contributions in support of Fine in the closing days of the campaign, with conservative super PACs launching ads spotlighting Trump’s support of Fine.
“I would have preferred if our candidate had raised money at a faster rate and gotten on TV quicker,” Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told reporters earlier this week.
But Hudson added that Fine is “doing what he needs to do. He’s on TV now.”
And he emphasized, “We’re going to win the seat. I’m not concerned at all.”
Trump, pointing to Fine, on Friday acknowledged that “our candidate doesn’t have that kind of money.”
There’s been criticism of Fine by some fellow Republicans. Former top Trump political adviser and conservative host Steve Bannon warned that Fine “isn’t winning.”
And two-term Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters last week that the GOP would underperform in the race, arguing that “it’s a reflection of the candidate running in that race.”
But it’s worth pointing out the contentious history between DeSantis and Fine, who was the first Florida Republican to flip his endorsement from DeSantis to Trump during the 2024 Republican presidential nomination battle.
In the 1st District, where there is less concern by Republicans about losing the seat, Valimont topped Patronis in fundraising by roughly a five-to-one margin.
While the races in the two Republican-dominated districts are far from ideal for the Democrats to try and flip, the elections are the first opportunity for voters and donors to try and make a difference since Trump’s return to power in the White House.
And Democrats say the surge in fundraising for their candidates is a sign their party is motivated amid voters’ frustrations with the sweeping and controversial moves made by Trump in his opening weeks back in office.
“The American people are not buying what the Republicans are selling,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries told reporters earlier this week.
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Jeffries and other Democrats aren’t predicting victory.
But Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House, highlighted that “these districts are so Republican, there would ordinarily be no reason to believe that the races will be close, but what I can say, almost guaranteed, is that the Democratic candidate in both of these Florida special elections will significantly overperform.”
Stefanik represents New York’s 21st Congressional Distirct, a large, mostly rural, district in the northernmost reaches of the state that includes most of the Adirondack Mountains and the Thousand Islands region. She cruised to re-election last November by 24 points.
“We don’t want to take any chances. We don’t want to experiment,” Trump said as he pointed to what would have been a special election later this year to fill Stefanik’s seat if she had resigned if confirmed as U.N. ambassador. “She polls like I do. I won her district by a lot of points. She also does very well there.”
“She’s very popular. She’s going to win. And somebody else will probably win, too, because we did very well there. I did very well there. But the word ‘probably’ is no good,” the president added as he emphasized he didn’t want to take any chances.”
Trump said he had asked Stefanik, “Would you mind staying in Congress?’ ‘Cause we don’t want to take any chances. It’s as simple as that. It’s basic politics. It’s politics 101.”
“I really appreciate her doing it,” Trump added. “She’s doing me a big favor . . . because she was all set to go to the United Nations.”
Stefanik has already stepped down and has been replaced in her House GOP leadership role as chair of the House Republican Conference.
“I spoke to Mike Johnson, they’re going to put her in a high leadership position,” Trump said, as he referred to the House Speaker.
