Q&A Of The Day – How Often Are South Florida’s Congressional Reps Voting With President Biden?
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Today’s entry: With the GOP dropping Cheney for Stefanik a lot of people have talked about how Cheney voted with Trump more than Stefanik. No one talks about “Biden Scores”. I’d like to know how SFL’s reps are voting with Biden as President.
Bottom Line: It’s still early but there’s a very clear trend in Congressional voting patterns in South Florida. The Democrats are staying together. On everything. Not only have all of South Florida’s Congressional Democrats (Alcee Hastings prior to his passing, Lois Frankel, Ted Deutch, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Frederica Wilson) voted 100% of the time in the current Congress with President Biden...so has every Democrat in Florida’s delegation – including gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist. This makes Florida’s Democrats the hardest left of any large state’s delegation. Consider, for example, squad members Rashida Talib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have voted with Biden 93% of the time. Incidentally, all of South Florida’s Democrats had voting records to the left of AOC, Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi in the previous congress as well. This is an under-told story as Florida’s Democrats consistently have voting records that are the hardest left in the country. On the other side of the isle the results aren’t so uniform.
South Florida’s Republicans have voted with President Biden as follows...
- Brian Mast: 6.3%
- Mario Diaz-Balart: 25%
- Maria Elvira-Salazar 33.3%
- Carlos Gimenez 37.5%
That’s part of a broader story. Congressional Republicans are generally less likely to vote in blocks. You referenced Cheney and Stefanik as well, so I thought I’d include their voting record compared to Biden’s as well.
- Cheney: 0%
- Stefanik: 18.8%
Incidentally, and perhaps ironically, Liz Cheney’s voting record is equal to the most conservative of any in the current Congress while Stefanik’s is about mid-pack among Republicans. So, the trends from the prior Congress hold true here as well. The difference in perception is when one prioritizes identity politics over policy. It’s a different version to a similar thing to what some struggled with regarding President Trump. Rather than focusing on his policy and actions which were exceedingly positive for this country – especially from a conservative viewpoint – many like Liz Cheney couldn’t get beyond the tweets and questionable rhetoric. Ironically, she’s now been voted out of leadership under similar circumstances.
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