Gay Valimont tells supporters she's raised $6.7 million to flip Matt Gaetz seat blue

Gay Valimont announced her congressional campaign had raised $6.7 million as she aims to flip a deeply red seat blue in the special election on April 1.

Valimont made the announcement on Friday, speaking to a standing-room-only crowd of more than 150 people at a town hall at the Pensacola Yacht Club.

“We have raised $6.7 million, and I used to hate it when I would go see a candidate speak, and they tell me how much money they raised,” Valimont said. “… And absolutely, I believe that money should be out of politics, but Jimmy Patronis started this race with $10 million in his pocket, and we know that if he figures out that we're about to destroy him, he's going to spend that money. And it's fine because we're ready.”

Valimont is the Democratic Party nominee for Florida's 1st Congressional District seat and is facing Republican Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis in a special election on April 1 to fill the seat vacated by Matt Gaetz.

A Democrat has not won an election to the seat since 1992, but Valimont told supporters Friday she believes she can win. She pointed out she’s already had a year of practice in her campaign last year against Gaetz. Valimont lost that race to Gaetz by 32 percentage points.

Now, her campaign is on a different level than last year, propelled by donations across the country made in response to anger over President Donald Trump's policies, the unique circumstances of a likely low-turnout special election, and the chance that it could erode the Republican's razor-thin majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Imagine if we win this seat,” Valimont said. “Y'all imagine if Matt Gaetz's seat saves the Department of Education.”

Many of the questions at the town hall were over the cuts Trump was making to the federal workforce. At one point, Valimont asked the crowd for a show of hands if they knew someone who worked in the federal government, and nearly every hand in the room went up.

“What's happening right now is hurting real people,” Valimont said.

Valimont also said what the Trump administration was doing by appointing Elon Musk to create and run the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE was wrong.

“Can you imagine if we had George Soros to come in and do the same thing under a Biden administration?” Valimont said.

Valimont said she will go to Congress and tell both Democrats and Republicans that the public does not like what’s been done in the first two months of the Trump administration.

“We have to do something big, and we have to do it now,” Valimont said.

Valimont didn’t mention her Republican opponent much during the nearly 90-minute event, but when she did, she hit him for his role as Florida’s chief financial officer who oversees the state’s insurance industry.

“Under his purview is the entire insurance crisis that has happened in Florida,” Valimont said. “It falls solely at his feet, and the reason he was given this opportunity to run here is because it's such a red district, and nobody would question. What we have to do, everybody, is question what Jimmy Patronis has done to us, and why he thinks he can come in here, purchase this seat, and go to Washington and use us as a stepping stone.”

Patronis has already hit back with an advertisement against Valimont saying she is running “dishonest, dirty campaign” against him. The ad touts that he oversaw the largest fine against an inusrance company in the fallout from Hurricane Ian. However, the Tampa Bay Times reported on Wednesday that when the fine was announced in May 2024, Patronis's office issued a statement that questioned whether the fine was a good policy.

Valimont was also asked questions about more traditional Democratic positions like gun control. Valimont said she doesn’t support taking anyone's guns but believes there should be background checks required even for person-to-person transactions.

Valimont was also asked about her position on women’s reproductive rights. The woman who asked the question shared a story that she had a pregnancy with a terminally ill baby. Her doctor warned her to call her if she appeared to be losing the baby while it still had a heartbeat because there was another doctor at the hospital who might refuse to help her if the baby had a heartbeat.

Valimont came down from the stage and hugged the woman before answering.

“That story is both horrible and too normal these days,” Valimont said. “Since the six-week abortion ban went into effect, we've had lots of women come to us and say they're scared to get pregnant.”

Valimont said doctors and the state should be held accountable for the woman's situation, but she said she didn’t expect much movement on the issue in the next few years.

“What I can tell you is, under this administration, we may not see an opportunity to fix it,” Valimont said. “But we can also, under this administration, not do anything worse.”

Valimont said the district has one of the highest number of veteran populations in the country, and she can’t believe Republicans aren’t speaking out against the cuts being made to the Veterans Administration.

“I'm running against somebody that has zero platform other than he supports Donald Trump,” Valimont said. “It's his thing, and he says that veterans support him. Now, if he supports Donald Trump and the cuts to the VA, I cannot imagine one veteran that would support him.”

Valimont’s town hall on Friday won’t be her last. She is holding a veteran town hall Thursday at the American Legion on Gulf Beach Highway in Warrington at 6 p.m.