Local Democrats in competitive races for U.S. Congress

Local Democrat Whitney Fox is running for U.S. Congress in Pinellas County District 13 against Republican Anna Paulina Luna. Luna is currently serving her first term in Congress. Fox won its crowded five-way primary handily, with 60% of the vote, and according to the Cook Political Report, a respected political analyst, the District 13 race is “competitive” even though it is still a “probably lean Republican” district . Fox claims that Luna has done nothing for the people of Pinellas County during her time in Congress, but has identified with the group of congressional chaos agents like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bobert and Matt Gaetz who are desperate for attention while they achieve nothing that serves. the interests of its constituents. Fox has benefited from very positive press during its run, including a profile piece in the New York Times in September that significantly increased its fundraising.

Democrat Pat Kemp is term-limited for her current county seat on the Hillsborough County Commission, where she served for eight years. She is now running for the newly created US House District 15, a brand new district born out of Florida’s 2022 redistricting and created as a result of Florida’s population growth over the past decade. The expansive new district now includes Northeast Hillsborough County, including Lutz, Carrollwood, Temple Terrace and Plant City, along with parts of Pasco and Polk counties, including Zephyrhills and West Lakeland. Sixty-two percent of the district is in Hillsborough County, where Kemp has previously been on the ballot five times and has good name recognition there. According to Kemp, the precincts that now make up this district voted for Trump by the lowest margins in Florida in 2020, so she is encouraged that this newly created district is competitive and that a Democrat has a good chance of prevailing against Republican Laurel Lee, a former judge and former DeSantis Secretary of State. According to Kemp, Rep. Lee has proven herself to be as radical a right-wing conservative Republican as Luna in her first term, but she is just quieter about it.

Both Democratic candidates urged voters to remember that each of their Republican opponents voted to defund the government and to defund FEMA in the days leading up to the recent hurricanes, after the hurricanes were predicted. Both Republican opponents also oppose climate change legislation that could mitigate the impact of increasingly larger hurricanes on Florida. Both Republicans have opposed legislation addressing the affordability crisis in Florida and the rest of the US. But perhaps the biggest issue Democrats have challenged Republicans on in Florida is the issue of abortion and fertility measures such as IVF. It is an issue that is very close to the hearts of voters in these two districts and where there is a clear divide between Republicans and Democrats. Both candidates Fox and Kemp hope that the presence of Amendment 4 on this ballot this election cycle will produce voters who will be motivated to vote for Democrats.

Republicans Laurel Lee and Anna Paulina Luna were invited to the show, but neither responded to the invitation. We are less than a week away from the end of the election. If you haven’t voted yet, come out and vote!

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