National Republicans have targeted two U.S. House seats they hope to steal from Democrats this fall. One is held by Central Florida’s Darren Soto. The other by South Florida Democrat Jared Moskowitz.
The Republicans’ plan is to portray both as “radical” lefties. The National Republican Congressional Committee sends out frequent emails that describe both as liberal extremists and even launched a website called “Radical Soto” — all of which is pretty laughable. Both Soto and Moskowitz are about as moderate as they come.
Not according to me, but according to their voting records, sponsored legislation and the groups that actually research the facts. Soto and Moskowitz vote with Republicans more than most of their Democratic colleagues. In fact, they sometimes tick off their liberal bases for doing so.
Still, I thought it might be worth looking at Florida’s congressional delegation to see who truly is the furthest right and left on the spectrum and who’s in-between.
According to Govtrack.us, a site that has been tracking lawmakers and legislation for more than two decades, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican now running for governor, is the No. 2 “most politically right” member in the U.S. House.
Sarasota Republican Greg Steube wasn’t too far behind at 14th.
By comparison, no Florida Democrat ranks in the top 20 “most politically left.”
So what you generally see is that Florida Republicans are further right than their Democratic colleagues are left. That’s probably not surprising for a state that has largely embraced the MAGA agenda.
Still, there are considerable amongst the Dems, according to Govtrack’s ideology “report card” for 2024, the most recent year available.
Orlando’s Maxwell Frost was listed as Florida’s most politically left member, ranking 22nd among all Democrats in Congress. South Florida Democrat Frederica Wilson was the Sunshine State’s Democratic runner-up at 54th. For perspective, there are more than 200 members on each side of the aisle. (The precise number fluctuates during any give session, thanks to temporarily vacated seats and special elections.)
So now you know the members who are furthest left and right. But what about the moderates?
For the Democrats, it’s Moskowitz (189th among Dems). And for the Republicans, it’s South Floridian Mario Díaz-Balart (202nd). Govtrack listed each of those guys so far down their party’s ideology ranking that the two members from opposing parties were actually within spitting distance of each other.
Other moderates include Soto and South Florida Republican Maria Salazar.
Honestly, few of the rankings surprised me much. It makes sense that Donalds, for instance, would be at the furthest end of the ideological spectrum. He’s trying to inherit Donald Trump’s MAGA crown in Florida. And it’s not surprising that Moskowitz, a former Democratic legislator who used to also work for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, would be listed as a moderate.
Basically, the rankings reflect what people who pay attention already know. Campaigns often target the ignorant.
Among Central Florida’s other reps, Govtrack ranked Cory Mills 85th most conservative and Daniel Webster 89th — so both more conservative than your average Congressional Republican, but far behind the Donaldses and Steubes of the world.
One other interesting metrics Govtrack measures is bipartisan bill sponsorship, noting how often a member joins up with members of the opposing party. The results there were, as you might expect, similar to the ideology rankings. Moskowitz and Soto were the state’s two top bipartisan bill joiners for Democrats while Salazar and Gainesville’s Gus Bilarakis were the Republicans’.
By way of background, Govtrack’s research focuses primarily on bill sponsorship, tracking how often members sponsor bills and team up with others to co-sponsor legislation. The site bills itself as “one of the oldest open government/government transparency websites in the world.”
If you’re a real data nerd, you can also check out another reliable Congressional research site called voteview.com, which primarily looks at votes.
The two sites reached slightly different conclusions. Voteview, for instance, ranked Frost as Florida’s second-most liberal voting member (well behind Wilson) and Donalds as Florida’s third-most conservative (behind Stuebe and Aaron Bean). Voteview also had more recent data, so it was able to include newcomer Republican rabble-rouser Randy Fine, which it ranked 85th, more conservative than the average Republican.
Overall, both sites paint similar pictures of Florida’s reps and do a good job explaining their methodology.
Most importantly, they rely on reams of data instead of cherry-picked votes and offer facts instead of opinions. The information is out there — for people who want to take the “radical” approach of doing their own research and reaching their own conclusions.
