Three Democrats in Florida overcame the GOP’s unusual mid-decade redistricting there, winning House races Tuesday for redrawn seats where Republicans hoped to have the upper hand.
Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Kathy Castor won reelection for their third and 11th terms in the House, respectively, and Pia Dandiya secured her first.
Their wins are a preliminary sign that Democrats can pull off wins in red states where, at the behest of President Donald Trump, Republican lawmakers redistricted to add favorable seats to this year’s congressional map. The early results also signal that discontent with the president and his party can drive voters beyond party lines, making for difficult terrain for Republicans even in GOP-leaning areas.
Trump in 2024 carried the districts of both the incumbent Democrats who won reelection. He won the redrawn 25th District, where Moskowitz ran, by nine percentage points, and the 14th District, where Castor ran, by 11. Moskowitz defeated Republican Scott Singer, the former mayor of Boca Raton, and Castor defeated Republican Mike Beltran, a former Florida state representative.
In Florida’s redrawn 22nd District, which had an open seat, Trump won by about 10 points. Dandiya, a former teacher, won against Republican Casey Askar, a Marine veteran.
The race in Florida’s 9th District, the last of the four Florida districts redistricted to favor Republicans, had not yet been called Tuesday night.
Outside Florida, Republicans drew more advantageous lines for themselves in nearly a dozen districts across six other states.
Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature approved its new map in April.
The following month, Moskowitz, who currently represents the state’s 23rd District, said he would run for the redrawn seat.
The 25th District is currently held by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D). After the map reshaping, she decided to run in Florida’s 20th District, a solidly blue district that had a vacant seat. Its previous representative, Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, resigned in April before she could have faced an expulsion vote from the House.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated the 25th District as “Lean Democratic” and noted that Moskowitz, who is Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel, would find support from the district’s large population of Jewish voters.
Cook classified the other two races under “Toss Up.”
Florida’s 14th District was redrawn to ax parts of Castor’s hometown of Tampa and add in conservative areas.
During a campaign stop in Tampa last month, Castor predicted that the GOP’s redistricting efforts would fail, given voters’ well-documented frustration over the economy heading into the midterms.
“No matter how they draw the lines, it’s Republicans, Democrats, independents are all feeling the same economic pain, and they’re pretty fed up,” she said.
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