Ryan Nicol
Democratic Rep. Nick Duran is arguing Florida’s health care system was “already broken” before COVID-19, and he says he wants to help fix it.
Those comments come in a new 30-second digital ad. Duran is defending his House District 112 seat against Republican challenger Bruno Barreiro this fall.
“The pandemic didn’t break our health care system. It was already broken,” Duran says at the beginning of the new ad.
“Before I came to Tallahassee, I spent my career fighting to lower health care costs and expand access to all Floridians. Now I’m in the Legislature working to fight the special interests, expand Medicaid and ensure that every neighborhood has COVID testing. We can fix our health care system and overcome this crisis together.”
Before joining the Legislature in 2016, Duran was Florida’s state director for Enroll America, a 501(c)(3) organization that aimed to sign up eligible individuals for Obamacare. Duran also served as the executive director of the Florida Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, a position he retained after winning the HD 112 seat.
Duran also serves on the board of trustees for both Epilepsy Florida and the Miami-Dade County Public Health Trust, which governs the Jackson Health System.
Duran’s district covers parts of coastal Miami-Dade County including Coral Gables and Key Biscayne. The county has served as the epicenter of the outbreak in Florida. It alone accounts for one-quarter of the confirmed cases in the entire state.
In 2018, Duran won reelection against Republican Rosy Palomino with 58% of the vote. Barreiro is a former Miami-Dade County Commissioner who also served in the Florida House in the 1990s. He secured the Republican nomination last month, defeating Palomino.
Duran entered the General Election period with a large cash advantage over Barreiro. As of Aug. 21, Duran held $186,000 as compared to just $17,000 for Barreiro. Duran is now tapping into that fund to help push out his reelection message as the region continues to recover from the effects of COVID-19.
