- First-term Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell will face Republican Carlos Gimenez in Florida’s 26th Congressional District.
- The district is the state’s southernmost congressional district and is home to the Florida Keys, part of Miami-Dade County, all of the state’s national parks, and Florida Atlantic University.
- See the live coverage and full results from all US House elections.
- Mucarsel-Powell has both substantially outraised and outspent Giminez.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
First-term Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell looks to defend her seat against Republican Carlos Gimenez in Florida’s 26th Congressional District.
The candidates
Mucarsel-Powell unseated former GOP Congressman Carlos Curbelo in 2018. Before her political career began, Mucarsel-Powell served as the director of advancement at Florida International University where she would later rise to become the associate dean of the college’s school of medicine.
When she was 24, she lost her father to gun violence, which she said led to her current support of “common-sense” gun reform. In addition to gun safety, she is campaigning on a platform that includes affordable healthcare, raising the minimum wage, and reforming the current immigration system. Mucarsel-Powell currently sits on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure as well as the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Gimenez, Mucarsel-Powell’s Republican challenger, is the current mayor of Miami-Dade County– a position he has held since 2011.
An immigrant from Cuba, he moved to Florida as a child and became a firefighter in 1974, ultimately rising to the rank of fire chief in 1991. He began his foray into politics in 2000 when he left the fire team and served as the city manager of Miami and then the Miami-Dade County Commissioner.
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The district
Florida’s 26th Congressional District is located in Florida’s southernmost region. It includes all of Monroe County as well as the southwestern region of Miami-Dade County. The district is home to all of the Florida Keys, Florida International University, and all three of the state’s national parks. The southern district was put into effect in 2013, following the release of 2010 US Census data.
The 26th District has been trending into reliably Democratic territory over the past few election cycles. Before Curbelo was unseated in 2018, he was one of few Republican members of Congress to represent a district won by both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Obama carried the district by 11.5 percentage points in 2012 and Clinton won the district by a larger margin of 16 points in 2016, according to the Daily Kos.
The money race
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Mucarsel-Powell has both significantly outraised and outspent Gimenez as of October 14.
Campaign finance filings show that Mucarsel-Powell has brought in $6.2 million, spent $5.7 million, and has around $582,000 in cash on hand while Giminez has raised $1.9 million, spent $1.7 million, and has around $234,500 in cash on hand.
What experts say
The race between Mucarsel-Powell and Gimenez is rated as “tilts Democratic” by Inside Elections and “leans Democratic” by The Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
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