Staff Reports
Add Raquel Regalado to the list of politicos vying to replace Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Congress.
Regalado, a former Miami-Dade school board member, announced Tuesday she was running to replace Ros-Lehtinen in Florida’s 27th Congressional District. The Miami Herald reported she is the second big-name Republican to enter the race, after Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro.
Republican Maria Peiro has also filed to run, and the Herald reported Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera has considered running for the spot.
Regalado is a 42-year-old mother of two, who has a history of crossing party lines. POLITICO Florida reported Regalado, the daughter of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, backed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink in 2010 over Republican Rick Scott. She endorsed Scott in his 2014 re-election grid. And in 2016, she challenged Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, a fellow Republican. Gimenez won, 56 percent to Regalado’s 44 percent.
Ros-Lehtinen announced earlier this year she plans to retire when her term ends in 2018. Democrats look at the seat as a possible pick-up, since Hillary Clinton won the district by 20 percentage points. The district includes parts of coastal Miami-Dade, including Miami Beach.
State Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez has said he plans to run for the seat, and is the most favored to take the Democratic nomination. He’ll face Democrats Scott Fuhrman, who ran against Ros-Lehtinen in 2016, and Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez.
