'There's a way': GOP 'anxiety' spreads in deep-red areas where Dem candidates making gains

Republicans are concerned that a pair of closer-than-expected elections Tuesday in deep-red districts will fuel a narrative that voters are rejecting Donald Trump's presidency.

Florida's chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, is running to replace former congressman Matt Gaetz and state Sen. Randy Fine is looking to replace former Rep. Mike Waltz, who is now Trump's scandal-plagued national security adviser, and the president has been actively involved in propping up their support in two districts he won easily in November, reported NBC News.

"Your vote in this crucial election will help determine whether the radical left will grind Congress to a halt, which is what they want to do — just stop everything, all the progress that we’ve made, which is record setting," Trump said at a tele-town hall Thursday night for Patronis.

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Trump also held a tele-town hall with Fine, and his rallies reflect GOP anxiety about spending resources and focusing attention on special elections in districts where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats 2-to-1, but their Democratic challengers have amassed staggering cash advantages.

“It definitely creates a lot of anxiety that there’s that much money coming in from all over the country,” Patronis said, "and they’re driving it into a part of Northwest Florida that’s never seen this much money ever spent on a campaign in the state’s history.”

His opponent, gun control activist Gay Valimont, raised $6.4 million from Jan. 9 to March 12, according to fundraising reports filed last week with the Federal Election Commission, compared to the $1.1 million Patronis raised over that same period, and Fine's opponent Josh Weil raised $9.7 million, compared to the $561,000 raised by Fine, who also recently spent $600,000 of his own money on his campaign.

“People are looking at the percent of people that are registered Republicans here and they’re saying, ‘There’s no way,’” Valimont said. “I think there is a way.”

Both Valimont, who lost to Gaetz in November, and Weil believe believe they have a path to victory by leveraging lower turnout with an energized Democratic base, and both say Trump and his billionaire backer Elon Musk have turned off Republicans and independents alike with sweeping cuts to government jobs and other early moves.

“It is bringing in more people that we weren’t counting on," Valimont said. "The Trump Republicans that were firmly in Trump’s corner that have lost their jobs, and they understand that he doesn’t care about them."