Fight for District 9

By Daniel An (Proofreader #1)

Before this election, the incumbent was Democrat Alan Grayson, who first gained his seat in the House of Representatives in 2012. However, he decided to pull out of this election in hopes of gaining a seat in the Senate, which ultimately failed because he lost to Patrick Murphy in the primaries.  As a result, this is a less predictable election. The current primary candidates are Republican Wayne Liebnitzky and Democrat Darren Soto. Liebnitzky was able to defeat his opponent, Wanda Rentas, in the primary with a comfortable lead of 67.6% to 32.4%. On the Democrat side, Soto beat Susannah Randolph, Dena Grayson, wife of Alan Grayson, and Valleri Crabtree with a 36.3% majority vote (Ballotpedia, 2016).

        

                                              Democrat Darren Soto (left) and Republican Wayne Liebnitzky (right)

                    

                   

In the 9th Congressional District of Florida, there are almost 620,000 registered citizens, most of whom are white (76.5%). However, ethnically wise, more than 46% of people come from Hispanic descent (My Congressional District, 2016).  By this factor, Soto was able to win the Democratic primary by appealing to the Hispanic population using political advertisements.  While other districts have shown tendencies to pick one party, District 9 is an exception. From 2000-2014, Grayson was the only Democratic incumbent from 2010-2014, but only because the previous two Republican incumbents were related to each other.  Therefore, it is not entirely clear what party will win District 9.

The two candidates have vastly different platforms. Soto has more liberal goals, such as gun reform in Florida and LGBT equality (Darren Soto, 2016). On his campaign website, he states that he wants to make sure that people undergo sufficient background checks before purchasing a gun. Using this strategy, he is conveying that he will make sure something as horrible as the Pulse shooting won’t happen again to get the LGBT vote. Similarly, he tries to get the retired senior vote by saying that he will fight for them if Congress tries to cut down on Social Security and will expand the Affordable Care Act to all Floridians. Some other issues he presents are Reproductive Rights for women, immigration reform, trade, and environmental protections. On the other hand, Liebnitzky has more conservative goals, such as American dominance over the world, stronger national security, and the expansion of the free market (Wayne Liebnitzky, 2016).  However, it should be noted that Soto and Liebnitzky both want to expand the Affordable Care Act to all Floridians. These goals represent what conservative Republicans want, so his strategy is to gain the Republican vote, which consists of a large part of the district.

 Looking at the trend, Soto will win District 9 because District 9 is leaning towards the Democrats, even though it was Republican before 2010. The reason for this switch is that the 2010 US census remade District 9 so that there were more Democratic voters from 4 other districts, which made a big impact (Ballotpedia, 2012). After 2010, Grayson was able to secure his seat and defeated his opponent 75% to 25% in his reelection campaign in 2012. Even though there are other factors that contribute to this, such as Soto's influece in the Hispanic group and both candidates' attempts to win over the senior vote, Soto has more momentum in his campaign, hence giving him a seat in the House of Representatives. 

References

Cordeiro, Monivette. "Soto, Liebnitzky Beat Challengers In Race For Congress". Orlando Weekly. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.

"Florida's 9Th Congressional District Election, 2016 - Ballotpedia". Ballotpedia.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.

"Florida's 9Th Congressional District Elections, 2012 - Ballotpedia". Ballotpedia.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.

Liebnitzky, Wayne. "Wayne Liebnitzky | For US Congress – State Of Florida 9Th District". Wayneforcongress.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.

"My Congressional District". Census.gov. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.Soto, Darren. "Darren Soto For Congress". Darrensoto.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016.