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."
Subscribe to 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.
-
Trump officials reinstating 2 Confederate monumentsSpeed Read The administration has plans to 'restore Confederate names and symbols' discarded in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 murder
-
Trump nominates Powell critic for vacant Fed seatspeed read Stephen Miran, the chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers and a fellow critic of Fed chair Jerome Powell, has been nominated to fill a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
-
ICE scraps age limits amid hiring pushSpeed Read Anyone 18 or older can now apply to be an ICE agent
-
Trump's global tariffs take effect, with new additionsSpeed Read Tariffs on more than 90 US trading partners went into effect, escalating the global trade war
-
House committee subpoenas Epstein filesSpeed Read The House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for its Jeffrey Epstein files with an Aug. 19 deadline
-
India rejects Trump threat over Russian oilSpeed Read The president said he would raise tariffs on India for buying and selling Russian oil
-
NY's Hochul vows response to Texas gerrymanderSpeed Read Gov. Kathy Hochul has promised to play ball with redistricting that favors the Democrats
-
Texas Democrats exit state to block redistricting voteSpeed Read More than 51 legislators fled the state in protest of the GOP's plan to redraw congressional districts
