Balart and The Election

Balart and The Election



Last Election:
Representative Balart was last elected in the most recent 2018 midterms. Due to the district being majority republican, it was not hard campaign for Rep. Balart. His opponent was Mary Barzee Flores, a democrat and former judge. Representative Balart won the election for the 25th district with 60.7% of the votes. Balart won with 126,826 votes compared to the 82,281 votes his Democratic challenger received (Naples Daily News, 2018). As one could imagine, he was quite happy to remain a Congressman. After the results, he stated "It's a huge honor and it's humbling...But tomorrow I'm going to start working again because I don't just show up during election session; I work to earn the trust and support of people of District 25 every single day (Naples Daily News, 2018)". 

 Current Prediction: 
There is no doubt that Representative Balart will run for congress again when the time comes in 2020. He has been in Congress since 2002 and is currently serving his 9th term (House.gov). It appears he has no intention of slowing down as he is on plenty of committees in the House and an overall career politician. As mentioned in the previous blog, Florida's 25th District is the 200th most republican district in the nation. With this in mind, it is fair to assume that he will be re-elected in 2020 with ease. 

 2016 Vote: 
In 2016, Balart ran for the 25th District as the incumbent and won with ease. Cook's Political Report rated this race and district safely Republican according to Ballotpedia. The Democratic challenger in this race was Alina Valdes. The margin of victory for Representative Balart was quite comfortable. He received 157,921 votes compared to the 95,319 votes his Democratic challenger received. This equates to a proportion of 62.4% to 37.6% (Ballotpedia, 2018). 

 Campaign Finance:
Representative Balart raised $2,261,369 dollars for his most recent campaign, the 2018 midterm election. He had $147,163 dollars on hand prior to the fundraising. Over the campaign, he spent $2,604,948, more than he raised however it was worth it as he was re-elected. His two major sources of funds were PAC contributors and large individual contributors. Top industries who helped Representative Balart via fundraising include law firms, leadership PACs, and air transport (OpenSecrets, 2018).  

 Major Issues: 
According to Representative Balart's website, he focuses on keeping Americans rights and liberties intact, promoting economic prosperity, and supporting a strong national defense (house.gov). He recently returned from Venezuela along with his congressional counterpart, Senator Marco Rubio. He was there to examine the border and attempt to find a solution to the issue of humanitarian aid not being able to reach the desired people. Along with this, he has recently been sponsoring a bill on the floor to establish new ZIP codes for certain communities in areas in Southern Florida, an area he represents (Congress.gov, 2019). 

References:
1. https://mariodiazbalart.house.gov/about-mario/biography
2. https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/06/mario-diaz-balart-wins-re-election-floridas-u-s-house-district-25/1862018002/
3. https://ballotpedia.org/Florida%27s_25th_Congressional_District_election,_2016
4. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/377?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22diaz+balart%22%5D%7D
5. https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary?cid=N00025337

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Electoral Connection

Image
The Electoral Connection  Putting Mayhew's Theory To Work David Mayhew's whole argument is that members of congress always have re-election in the back of their mind. As he states, it is the proximate goal. Mario Diaz Balart is a career politician. As mentioned in the previous blogs, he has been working around local government ever since he graduated University of Southern Florida and has been in the U.S House of Representatives since 2002. He has not shown any intention of running for a higher office as he is one of the more senior figures in the House and seems quite comfortable there. Advertising : As mentioned earlier, Balart has been in office since 2002. Even though he is a hot shot in Washington D.C, he has not forgotten about his constituency back home in Southern Florida. Representative Balart is not one to crave media attention. Especially with today's media attention on the President, Representative Balart has been able to slide under it when it comes
Read more

Florida's 25th Congressional District

Image
Florida's 25th Congressional District  The 25th congressional district is one of the more populated districts in Florida. It is located in the Southern part of the state. The district spans from the suburbs of West Miami to the Northern Everglades and Eastern Naples area. District Breakdown: (House.gov) -Major Cities: Western area of Miami and Eastern area of Naples -Population: 780,826 (2017) -Males: 382,632 -Females:  398,194 -Median Age: 42.7 -Party Majority: Republican Geographical Breakdown: (United States Census Bureau) -94.4% Urban -5.6% Rural/Country Racial Breakdown: ( United States Census Bureau )   -Total: 780,826 -White: 705,942 -Black/African American: 35,161 -Asian: 11,691 -American Indian: 1,618 -Other: 16,731 Ethnically, 70.4% are of Hispanic background (Ballotpedia) Educational Attainment: ( United States Census Bureau) -Sample: Population over 25 -Below 9th grade: 11.8% -High School Dropout: 8.7% -High Sc
Read more