Were any 2025 special elections triggered by resignations or deaths in 2024 or 2025?

1. The headline federal cases: six House specials and clear triggers

Official compilations and contemporaneous reporting list six special elections to the U.S. House in 2025 during the 119th Congress, and the public record ties several of those contests directly to resignations or deaths occurring in late 2024 or in 2025, for example Republican Matt Gaetz’s resignation on November 13, 2024, which precipitated a 2025 special election ^{[1] [2]}, and Representative Mike Waltz’s resignation on January 20, 2025, which led to a separate special election in 2025 ^[1].

2. Deaths and mid‑year vacancies that produced 2025 contests

At least one high‑profile death in 2025 — Representative Raúl Grijalva’s death from complications of cancer treatment on March 13, 2025 — is explicitly tied to a special election called for later in 2025 ^[1], and other members’ departures (including members who announced intent not to continue or who died prior to their successors’ terms) are cited as the formal causes for additional 2025 special contests in the summarized election logs ^[1].

3. State and local follow‑on: dozens of specials largely driven by resignations

Beyond Congress, 2025 featured a large slate of state legislative and local special elections — Ballotpedia counted 95 state legislative special elections scheduled in 23 states for 2025 — and the common proximate causes listed are resignations, appointments, or deaths of incumbents, many of which occurred in late 2024 or in 2025 itself ^[3]. Election outlets note that “there are almost always vacancies that arise due to resignation or death,” and their 2025 special‑election calendars reflect that pattern across both state and federal levels ^[4].

4. What is clear, what remains fuzzy, and why context matters

The publicly available summaries agree that multiple 2025 special elections were directly triggered by resignations that took place in November–December 2024 (Gaetz is the clearest example) and by departures or deaths in 2025 that produced additional 2025 contests (Grijalva and Waltz among the cited cases) ^{[1] [2]}. Reporting and compilation sources, however, vary in granularity: Wikipedia and Ballotpedia present lists and short cause notes ^{[1] [2]}, while election‑tracking outlets aggregate dozens of state and local cases without always naming every triggering date ^{[4] [3]}. Where a specific vacancy-creation date or legal mechanism is important, the primary state notice or governor’s proclamation should be consulted; this reporting synthesizes multiple secondary trackers rather than reproducing every individual vacancy notice ^{[1] [3]}.

5. Competing narratives and implicit agendas in coverage

Some outlets emphasize the political consequences of these special elections — which party gains or loses seats — while others treat them as routine calendar items; trackers such as Ballotpedia and 270towin present neutral lists and vote results ^{[2] [4]}, whereas commentary outlets might frame a vacancy (for example, a resignation tied to a presidential nomination) as part of a larger political storyline ^[1]. That framing can tilt public attention toward a small number of high‑profile vacancies even though most 2025 special elections were the predictable administrative consequences of ordinary resignations and deaths ^{[4] [3]}.

Bottom line

Yes: multiple 2025 special elections were explicitly triggered by resignations occurring in late 2024 (notably Matt Gaetz’s November 13, 2024 resignation) and by resignations and at least one death in 2025 (including Mike Waltz’s January 20, 2025 resignation and Raúl Grijalva’s March 13, 2025 death), and those federal cases were accompanied by a much larger set of state and local special elections that were similarly caused by resignations or deaths in 2024–2025 ^{[1] [2] [4] [3]}.