FL-25

Last week, the DCCC and the Florida Democratic Party decided to give Mario Diaz-Balart, who was born on September 25, 1961, an early birthday present. They gave him what incumbents love most: an opponent-free election cycle.

There are 3 South Florida districts held by Republicans that are heavily Latino:

Writing for The Atlantic this morning, Ben Rhodes, the architect of Obama’s Cuba opening—dug down into why Trump’s ill-thought out Cuba policy will fail.

Steve Stivers (R-OH), the chair of the NRCC, told the NY Times a few days ago that the Republicans had to pass Ryan's TrumpCare bill to "keep our own base excited." But even the GOP base isn't excited. A new poll shows 78% of Hillary voters strongly opposed to it while just 23% of Trump voters are strongly in favor of it.

By the 1860s Cuba was the chief sugar producer in the world and by the 1880s the US consumed most of Cuba’s exported sugar. In 1898, following the Spanish-American War, the US effectively acquired Cuba. The U.S. came close to annexing Cuba but sugar beet producers in Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado were able to prevent it so that Cuban sugar wouldn't destroy their profits.

Doral is a city in Miami-Dade County about a mile from Miami International Airport and it's in the heart of the 25th congressional district. Over 50,000 people live there, many of them Venezuelan immigrants. In fact, the city is sometimes referred to as Doralzuela and there are more Venezuelan-Americans there than in any other city in the country. Doral is 80% Hispanic and the mayor is from Venezuela.

Jeff Flake has never been someone with whom we've found much common ground here at DWT. He was a very conservative House member and he is a very conservative senator. But unlike most Republicans in Congress, Flake isn't a coward when it comes to the execrable Señor Trumpanzee.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Mike Fernandez tossed around those million dollar checks the way you might tip someone really exceptional with a twenty. He gave superPACs for Mitt Romney and Rick Scott million dollar pops-- and, more recently, put over three million in for Jeb Bush. And he's given hundreds of thousands more to the RNC and other Republican committees.

And he meant itYesterday the House passed H.R. 1270, which the Republicans had cutely called the Restoring Access to Medication Act 243-164. Although unheralded, it was the 64th GOP attempt to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act. Every single Republican voted YES-- even the ones who try to pass themselves off as vaguely mainstream-- and 164 Democrats voted NO.

2 of Florida's most corrupt congressmembers, Mario and #DebtTrapDebbieDebbie Wasserman Schultz got into a lot of trouble with Democratic voters in 2008 when she was head of the DCCC's Red to Blue committee.