Consultant Donna E. Shalala, a Democrat who served as President Invoice Clinton’s well being secretary, narrowly misplaced her Florida seat to the
Consultant Donna E. Shalala, a Democrat who served as President Invoice Clinton’s well being secretary, narrowly misplaced her Florida seat to the Republican candidate, Maria Elvira Salazar, on Tuesday, turning into one of many extra notable Democratic casualties within the Home.
In a rematch of their 2018 Home race, Ms. Salazar, a former tv journalist, will characterize Florida’s 27th Congressional District, which incorporates Miami and surrounding communities in Miami-Dade County.
The loss got here as Democrats struggled with South Florida’s massive Hispanic inhabitants, a bunch seen as pivotal to the fortunes of President Trump and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. of their quest for the state of Florida and its 29 Electoral Faculty votes. Consultant Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat in a close-by district, was additionally defeated, and Mr. Biden was falling wanting Hillary Clinton’s margins in Miami-Dade in 2016.
Ms. Salazar campaigned with Colombian politicians and reached out on Spanish-language media to the Cuban-American Republicans in Miami, conflating the Democratic platform with leftist oppression of their dwelling international locations. Ms. Shalala isn’t a socialist, however Ms. Salazar carried the thread even into her victory speech on Tuesday.
“I cannot cower to the mob and when confronted with the so-called democratic socialists,” she instructed supporters. “I’ll inform them that we now have seen the dogma in motion already and it doesn’t work.”
Two years in the past, Ms. Shalala, 79, had defeated Ms. Salazar by six proportion factors to fill the open seat of Consultant Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican who had served within the Home for 30 years.
Few first-term members of the Home arrive on Capitol Hill with the form of identify recognition and credentials possessed by Ms. Shalala, whom Mr. Clinton nominated to be secretary of well being and human companies in 1993. From 2001 to 2015, Ms. Shalala served because the president of the College of Miami.
In April, Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Ms. Shalala to a fee overseeing the administration of a $2 trillion financial reduction program in response to the pandemic. Ms. Shalala’s intensive inventory holdings in firms affected by the pandemic shortly grew to become the topic of scrutiny.
On the time, Ms. Shalala had mentioned she had bought various the shares in query since she had been elected to Congress, however then confronted criticism for not disclosing greater than 500 transactions as required by legislation. She paid a $1,200 superb to the Home Ethics Committee in April, The Miami Herald reported. In September, Ms. Shalala was cited for failing to reveal two extra inventory gross sales.
Ms. Salazar accused Ms. Shalala of profiting off inventory gross sales throughout the pandemic in an assault advert, with out providing proof to assist her declare.
At her victory celebration, Ms. Salazar danced behind the lectern, thanking supporters for encouraging her to run once more in opposition to Ms. Shalala.
“I felt your constant and unwavering assist throughout these 18 months,” Ms. Salazar mentioned.
Shawn Hubler and Patricia Mazzei contributed reporting.