Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powellâs first reelection contest is proving to be much closer than expected in a Florida district that went for Hillary Clinton by 16 points in 2016.
Mucarsel-Powell, 49, flipped Floridaâs 26th Congressional District blue in 2018, defeating centrist Republican Carlos Curbelo to help Democrats win the House majority.
But her reelection contest against Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez will be hard-fought. How the presidential race shakes out in the district, and whether President Trump wins back any of the support he lost in 2016 there, could ultimately trickle down the ballot to the congressional race.
The South Florida district was only created in 2012, and itâs changed party hands twice since then. The district houses the southwest portion of Miami-Dade County, of which Cuban American Gimenez has been mayor since 2011, as well as all three of Floridaâs national parks, including the Everglades.
Roughly two-thirds of the districtâs eligible voters are Latino, and recent polling of Miami-Dade County shows Trump appears to be doing better with Latino voters in the region than in 2016.
Gimenez, 66, easily won the Republican primary in August, but it wasnât a landslide, suggesting he has more work to do to consolidate GOP support in the district behind him. Trump lost Miami-Dade County by 30 points in 2016.
The term-limited mayor also faces another acute challenge: the coronavirus pandemic. Gimenez is likely to be judged by voters on how heâs handled the pandemic, as Miami-Dade, Floridaâs most populous county, has been a hot spot for the virus.
Gimenez has Trumpâs endorsement, and Mucarsel-Powell has tried to make the election as much about the presidentâs positions as those of the Miami-Dade mayor. By contrast, Gimenez has sought to link Mucarsel-Powell, endorsed by Trumpâs rival Joe Biden, to the more left-wing portion of the Democratic Party.
Both candidates recently told the Miami Herald their top priority if elected is to get the pandemic under control. For Gimenez, that means restoring the U.S. economy back to its pre-pandemic boom, including by cutting taxes.
Mucarsel-Powell told the Miami Herald a âclear and effective planâ is needed to beat back the pandemic to allow schools and businesses to reopen and Florida tourism to rebound.
The candidates are further apart on other issues, however, including gun control and climate change, whereas Mucarsel-Powell and her 2018 opponent, Curbelo, had more similar views on those issues.
Mucarsel-Powell, whose father was shot and killed outside his house in Ecuador, where sheâs from, more than two decades ago, has introduced several gun control bills over her first two years in Congress. Gimenez, meanwhile, strongly supports gun rights and doesnât back a ban on assault weapons.
The Miami-Dade mayor, whose county is especially vulnerable to effects of climate change such as sea-level rise, also doesnât support a price on carbon. Curbelo, while in Congress, bucked his party on climate change and introduced the first Republican-led carbon tax bill.
