- April 5, 2025
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Democrats are leading the Volusia County voter turnout by a slim margin in the April 1 special election for the state's Congressional District 6 race, based on preliminary data shared by the county's Supervisor of Elections.
Based on data last updated the afternoon of Monday, March 31, a total of 15,127 registered Democrats voted during the early voting period, which ran from March 22-29. This is an over 100-ballot lead from Republicans, 15,001 of whom have cast their ballots.
The supervisor of elections is also reporting 5,731 independent voters and 720 others have cast a ballot so far, totaling an 18.78% turnout.
The Congressional District 6 — which while it has four candidates on the ballot, has centered around Republican Florida Sen. Randy Fine versus Democratic candidate and public school educator Josh Weil — has attracted national attention, with the New York Times reporting Monday that "Democrats are now pressing to turn this deep-red district around Daytona Beach into — if not an actual victory — a symbol of much-needed momentum by cutting deeply into the district’s typical G.O.P. margin."
At the early voting location in Ormond Beach, the library, Republicans led the number of ballots cast: 3,889 to Democrats' 2,387. Independent voters totaled 1,192 ballots cast.
The county had two other early voting sites, one at the Daytona Beach library and the other at the Supervisor of Elections office in DeLand. Democrats led at the Daytona Beach library, with 2,151 ballots compared to Republicans' 1,313. In DeLand, 1,970 Democrats participated in early voting compared to 2,354 Republicans.
Volusia County currently has 130,504 registered Democrats, 186,069 registered Republicans and 132,369 voters registered with no party affiliation.
In a video posted by the Volusia County Democratic Party on Facebook, Chair Ken Martin urged volunteers to continue their work, noting the ripple effect the race has had — President Donald Trump recently withdrew New York Rep. Elise Stefanik's nomination.
"What you're doing is working," Martin told volunteers. "What you're doing is making a difference. ... Once this election is over, keep it going."
In Flagler County, Republicans outnumber the number of Democrats — 49,377 to 24,414 — and had done so during early voting too.
As of Monday afternoon, 11,187 Republicans have voted in the special election, compared to 8,367 Democrats. A total of 3,333 independents and 377 voters with a different party affiliation have also voted so far. The county's voter turnout, so far, is higher than Volusia's, at 23.34%.
In a newsletter, Flagler County Democratic Party Chair Janet Sullivan celebrated the Democratic turnout in Flagler County, writing that "Republicans are evidently rather surprised about CD06. They see us 'overperform', and they are 'getting the message.'"
"However, I want to be clear: My goals are not to overperform and send messages to the Republicans. I am in this to win this," Sullivan wrote.
In an interview with ABC News where he responded to Republican concerns over losing the congressional seat, Fine expressed confidence in Republicans voting on Election Day.
"Support for President Trump is not waning in this district," Fine said. "We just need those to support him to get out and vote tomorrow, and if we do, we're going to have a big win."
Weil posted a clip of one of his campaign stops on March 29, in which he says the early voting numbers are showing voters "want something different for our country and in Congress."
"We have built something incredibly special here and we want this to be the template moving forward," Weil said. "This isn't just about winning this seat. This about starting a movement across the nation where we start taking seat after seat back."
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