Moderate Murphy faces ‘Young Gun’ Valentín
Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy faces Republican “Young Gun” Leo Valentín in District 7, which has gone back and forth between Democrats and the GOP over the years.
Although the nonpartisan Cook Political Report considers the district evenly split among the two parties, the group lists it as solidly Democratic in this year’s race. District 7 reaches from north Seminole County into parts of Orange County.
Murphy has styled herself a moderate since her initial victory over incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. John Mica in 2016 and later becoming the co-chair of the centrist Blue Dog Caucus. Murphy has raised more than $2 million this cycle and has spent more than $730,000, including contributing more than $100,000 to the Democrats’ congressional campaign arm.
Republicans, though, still consider her district as one of their biggest targets, naming Valentín one of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Young Guns.” However, he still has much less campaign cash than Murphy, having about $300,000, including a $190,000 self-loan.
Who they are
Stephanie Murphy, 42, of Winter Park, is a two-term U.S. congresswoman and a former Defense
Department national security specialist and Rollins College professor.
Leo Valentín, 35, of Orlando, is a radiology doctor and former CEO of Professional Hospital in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.
Where they stand
Murphy cited being named as one of the most effective and bipartisan Congress members during her four years in office.
“Being bipartisan, being willing to work with whoever I need to, has enabled me to be effective,” Murphy said. “And whether that’s in my first term where Republicans held all levers of government, or in my current term where we have divided Congress, I’ve been able to be effective on behalf of my community.”
She pointed to her response to the coronavirus pandemic, including holding one of the first roundtables on pandemic preparedness in mid-February.
“Even before Florida had its first case, we thought to raise awareness and lead with science and facts,” she said.
Murphy was also the first House member to introduce the idea of an employee retention tax credit, which became part of the CARES Act. She also said she was working to hold the state accountable for its “unemployment fiasco,” including helping to provide federal resources for those who lost work.
Her proudest accomplishments, she said, included ending the decadeslong ban on federal gun violence research in her first term and then being able to allocate $15 million toward such research in her second term. She also cited her office helping local veterans with benefits and health care, as well as her work to posthumously award Sgt. First Class Alwyn Cashe the Medal of Honor.
Murphy said her priorities if reelected included
providing health care resources and economic recovery amid the pandemic, as well as reversing some of the Trump administration’s rollbacks of environmental protections.
“And I think it would be important to protect Americans’ access to health care because that is an ongoing battle,” Murphy said. “Republicans are seeking to continually dismantle our health care system in the midst of a pandemic. And I think the pandemic has underscored for us how important it is for Americans and Floridians to have access to health care.”
Valentín, who opposes the Affordable Care Act, said he wanted to implement Trump’s America First health care plan.
“How do we make choice an option for patients?” Valentín asked. “How do we lower prices? And how do we increase transparency?”
He also wanted to increase limits for Health Savings Accounts and echoed the president in saying individual premiums should be tax deductible.
“Right now, corporations have that ability, but individuals and the individual market [don’t] have that benefit,” he said.
Asked about how he would protect people with pre-existing conditions, Valentín said that there were “different ways of doing this, and the federal and the state governments would play a role with that. … We can have many ways of how we do that. But that’s the principle or the pillar that should be part of any plan that we consider.”
The Affordable Care Act provision protecting people with pre-existing conditions from being denied health care could be overturned by the Supreme Court, and Trump’s executive order protecting preexisting conditions language doesn’t have the backing of law.
If elected, Valentín said, “how do we move forward towards economic recovery?”
While he said the country was “heading in the right direction” on jobs, “we should not take anything for granted. … And obviously, we want to do this in parallel with our safety needs, making sure that we continue to improve in our [coronavirus] testing, not only the capacity, but also the affordability of these tests and how accessible they are.”
Where they differ
Murphy said she was “alarmed about how my opponent has continually attacked women’s rights and pushed to repeal [the Affordable Care Act] in the midst of a global pandemic.”
Valentín, she added, “has spent his campaign pledging his blind allegiance to President Trump. I’m somebody who’s not afraid to stand up to my party when they’re wrong, or work with the Trump administration where there’s common ground. In fact, President Trump even asked me to serve on his bipartisan commission to restart our national economy. … Members of Congress should take [an oath] to the Constitution, not to any particular president.”
Valentín called Murphy “part of this political class for a long time.”
“I’m a medical doctor, a citizen candidate, and I think my background speaks for itself,” he said. “I have not been part of this political class. I’m really focused on common-sense solutions.”
He also said he was “very firm and very clear that we can support nonviolent protests, but that we have to be clear as leaders that either defunding the police or promoting any violence is not acceptable.”
Election Day is Nov. 3. Mail-in ballots are beginning to be mailed out, and early voting begins Oct. 19.