On Sunday, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) announced she will not seek re-election to her Miami-area seat in 2018, handing Democrats a promising pick-up opportunity. Ros-Lehtinen beat her Democratic challenger in November by 10 points, even though Hillary Clinton won the newly redrawn 27th congressional district by 20 points. Ros-Lehtinen, 64, is the first Cuban-American and first Hispanic woman elected to Congress, and she's the longest-serving Floridian in Congress; Jeb Bush managed her first congressional campaign and Sen. Marco Rubio (R) was once her intern.
Ros-Lehtinen told the Miami Herald on Sunday that after 38 years in elected office, "it's time to take a new step." She said she had no doubt that she could win next year if she ran. Democrats need to win 24 more seats to take control of the House, and they seem pretty confident of their chances in the Florida 27th. Ros-Lehtinen is generally a defense hawk and to the left of her party on LGBTQ rights and on health care. She said she isn't retiring because of President Trump. "I've served under all kinds of different dynamics in all these years that I've been in office here," Ros-Lehtinen told the Miami Herald. "Though I don't agree with many, if not most, positions of President Trump."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Political cartoons for November 29Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include Kash Patel's travel perks, believing in Congress, and more
-
Nigel Farage: was he a teenage racist?Talking Point Farage’s denials have been ‘slippery’, but should claims from Reform leader’s schooldays be on the news agenda?
-
Pushing for peace: is Trump appeasing Moscow?In Depth European leaders succeeded in bringing themselves in from the cold and softening Moscow’s terms, but Kyiv still faces an unenviable choice
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
