Voters in Florida's District 13 special election Tuesday sent a message that they rejected the Democrats' view of government and "wanted to keep a check on President Obama," said U.S. Rep.-elect David Jolly, who won the race.
"The voters here rejected a view of government that has been espoused by our president and by Democrats in Congress," the Florida Republican told "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday. "I think voters decided last night they wanted to keep a check on President Obama."
Jolly beat Democratic opponent Alex Sink to fill the Tampa-area seat previously held by the late Bill Young. Jolly won with 48.5 percent of the vote to Sink's 46.6 percent. Libertarian candidate Lucas Overby pulled in 4.8 percent of the vote.
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The win should give Democrats "reason to worry" as they campaign in the November midterm elections, Jolly said. Their "message testing on Obamacare" did not work for the voters in his district, and Jolly argued the healthcare law's unpopularity would be hard for Democrats to defend.
"I don't think they can ever get away from the fact that this president has put on the American people a change in the role of government and our individual lives. And people rejected that last night," he said.
Democrats attempting to explain away Tuesday's loss were engaging in "a lot of spin control," Jolly said, adding that the bottom line was the Democratic message did not resonate.
"They know they lost on their message. Their message is wrong. They are wrong on the issues for the American people. That's why we won this race," he said.
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