DeSantis sets election for Hastingsâ seat in 2022, leaving it open for 9 months Hastingsâ seat will be vacant for more than nine months. The void is about four months longer than the last U.S. House seat that became vacant in Florida following the death of a sitting member of Congress. Â By Alex Daugherty Updated May 5 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week announced that the special election to replace Rep. Alcee Hastings, who died last month, will take place in January 2022. Democrats urged DeSantis to fill the seat quickly â arguing that leaving a majority Black and heavily Democratic seat in Broward and Palm Beach counties unoccupied for months deprives