As weโre closing in on Election Day, I thought it would be a good time to reevaluate the voting records of South Floridaโs congressional representatives. Control of Congress will clearly be critical to the agenda of whomever the next President of the United States happens to be. This is an exercise I do from time to time to gauge actions rather than words. In recent years itโs been especially telling. When discussing the most liberal members of Congress in the country, you donโt often hear South Floridaโs Democrats being mentioned, however, voting records have told a different story. One way, in my opinion, the best way, of measuring voting records is by comparing actual votes in Congress to President Trumpโs agenda.
Senators are not up for election this year, so this story will focus on just South Floridaโs congressional representatives in the House. And for a fair comparison, only votes conducted during the current Congress, the 116th, will be used. These are the representatives based on the percentage of the time theyโve voted with President Trump:
- Brian Mast โ 88.3%
- Mario Diaz Balart โ 87.8%
- Lois Frankel โ 5.2%
- Alcee Hastings โ 5.1%
- Ted Deutch โ 4.8%
- Debbie Mucarsel-Powell โ 4.8%
- Donna Shalala โ 4.8%
- Debbie Wasserman Schultz โ 4.8%
- Frederica Wilson โ 4%
Not surprisingly South Floridaโs two Republicans are at the top of the list with Representative Mast being the most likely to vote with President Trump, followed closely by Mario Diaz Balart. Also, not surprisingly, South Floridaโs Democrats are significantly less likely to vote with the President. But whatโs also clear in this exercise is just how much division there is between the two parties. Itโs remarkable that thereโs an 82% difference of opinion/voting records between the most moderate Republican and Democrat. It also illustrates another important point. While Lois Frankelโs voting record is technically the most bipartisan among Democrats and Frederica Wilsonโs is the least. Weโre only talking about 1%. Thereโs very little difference between the most and least progressive Democrats in South Florida. Also, both Republicans are far more likely to vote across the aisle than any of South Floridaโs Democrats. Theyโre all hard-left based on their voting records and among the most liberal nationally. Notably, for context, all are further to the left than Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who votes with President Trump 8.8% of the time, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who votes with President Trump 14.3% of the time. It speaks volumes when AOC is literally three times more conservative than your congressional representative. These voting records tell a specific story that isnโt conveyed during campaign platitudes.
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