What Blue Wave? Dems Losing Ground In Miami Congressional Race
by Brock Simmons
TheGatewayPundit.com
September 22, 2018
District 27 has been represented by Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who previously held District 18 before the 27th district was created. Ros-Lehtinen is retiring. The democrats hold a registration edge in the district. Hillary won the district by 20 points over Trump in 2016. 71% of the voters are Hispanic. And it’s square in the middle of the metropolitan area of Miami.
District 27 was in the crosshairs for the DNC, who figured they would surely pick up the seat.
Ordinarily, a candidate with the background of Shalala, who was Secretary Of Health & Human Services under President Clinton, would be a shoe-in under these circumstances. She was even the designated survivor for Clinton’s 1996 State Of The Union address.
The latest polls have Republican nominee Maria Salazar leading by 9 points. This is despite the fact that Shalala has outraised and outspent Salazar $2,000,000 to $600,000.
McLatchy DC reports:
“Democrats exulted when U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen announced last year she was retiring. Because the Republican congresswoman’s district leans Democratic, one prominent Washington election watcher immediately labeled the race “lean Democratic.”
No longer.
On the heels of two internal polls Wednesday that showed Democratic nominee Donna Shalala either losing or nearly tied with GOP opponent Maria Elvira Salazar, the Washington non-partisan election handicapper, the Cook Political Report, moved the needle back to the middle to “toss-up.”
David Wasserman, who tracks House races for Cook and last week suggested that some Democrats were worried that Shalala had not pulled away, called it a “stunning turn” for a race that should be a “slam dunk” for Democrats.
“Democrats believe the race is tied and that Trump’s rampant unpopularity in the district will ultimately tilt the scales to Shalala,” Wasserman wrote. “But Democrats are now on the verge of frittering away what was once considered their easiest pickup of the cycle.”
He cited a bad candidate match up, noting that Shalala, 77, would be the second-oldest House freshman in history and is seeking to represent an overwhelmingly Hispanic district, despite not speaking Spanish.
The Rest…HERE
