Democrat Ted Deutch Wins in Florida

Democrat Ted Deutch easily beat his Republican opponent Ed Lynch in Tuesday’s special election for the Florida’s 19th district congressional seat. Deutch was expected to win—thanks to a big fundraising advantage and the area’s liberal voters—but politicos were closely watching the race to see if the passage of the health-care bill would affect a Democrat’s performance. It did not appear to do so. Deutch won with 62 percent of the votes, a margin just slightly below what’s typical in the dark-blue district (Obama took the district with 66 percent). A conservative third-party candidate brought in just 3 percent.