Shalala, Mucarsel-Powell flip House seats in Miami-Dade

Democrats take both races for the 26th, 27th districts

Two Miami-Dade County House seats turned Democrat on Tuesday, as Donna Shalala and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell won their races.

Mucarsel-Powell ousted Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo from the 26th District seat.

Shalala, running for elective office for the first time at age 77, won the 27th District over former television journalist Maria Elvira Salazar.

The district was represented for decades by GOP Rep. Ileana RosLehtinen, who is retiring.

Without mentioning President

Donald

Trump by name,

Shalala had a clear message for the White House in her victory speech.

“Mr. President, here we come,” she said to loud cheers. “Bringing us together is absolutely crucial. Some people would like to divide us. We just can’t let that happen, because it’s un-American.”

Curbelo, a moderate and critic of Trump, was trying MucarselPowell

to defy the political winds against the president.

Mucarsel-Powell is an immigrant from Ecuador who has worked for several nonprofit organizations in Miami-Dade County. She ran on preventing gun violence and protecting the environment, but her main focus was on health care and the Affordable Care Act, which Curbelo voted to

repeal.

Mucarsel-Powell painted Curbelo as a politician who talks like a moderate but tends to vote with conservatives.

Curbelo is a leader of the bipartisan Climate Caucus and bucked GOP leadership this summer by supporting a tax on emissions of carbon dioxide, a contributor to global warming.