• 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.
  • Mucarsel-Powell currently has over three times more cash on hand and money raised than Gimenez.
  • 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 forming her current support of “common-sense” gun reform. In addition to gun safety, she is campaigning on a platform which 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 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.

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 new 2010 U.S. 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 raised $3.8 million - over three times as much as Gimenez with $1.1 million. Gimenez has $882,000 in cash on hand remaining, also over three times less than Mucarsel-Powell's $2.8 million on hand.

What experts say

The race between Mucarsel-Powell and Gimenez is rated as a "toss-up" by The Cook Political Report, "tilts Democratic" by Inside Elections, and "leans Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.