Ryan Nicol
After Republican Rep. Ana Maria Rodriguez vacated the House District 105 seat to run for the Senate, David Borrero held the seat for the GOP with a win over Maureen Porras.
According to Tuesday’s unofficial results, Borrero is ahead of Porras by a 54%-46% margin.
Rodriguez secured the House District 105 seat in 2018, topping Democrat Javier Estevez in an open contest by just 417 votes.
Borrero and Porras faced primary fights before securing their respective nominations in the race. Borrero is a Sweetwater City Commissioner while Porras works as an immigration lawyer.
The district spans Broward and Miami-Dade counties and stretches all the way across the state to the West Coast, encompassing parts of Collier County as well.
Nearly 70% of residents are Hispanic. Just over one-quarter of voters are Cuban. That’s a smaller share than seen elsewhere in South Florida for a demographic that votes Republican more reliably than Hispanics overall.
In September, Porras told Florida Politics she believes the seat is slowly moving into the blue column.
“The demographics are definitely shifting to this being a Democratic seat,” Porras argued. Borrero proved her wrong Tuesday.
The last several General Election contests did bear out Porras’ argument though. In 2012, Republican Rep. Carlos Trujillo coasted to victory against write-in candidate Raul Rene Robayna. Without a Democrat on the ticket, Trujillo secured close to 100% of the vote.
In 2014, Democrat Carlos A. Pereira looked to oust Trujillo. But the incumbent won comfortably, topping Pereira 57%-43%.
In 2016, Trujillo again held the seat, but his margin narrowed. He defeated Democrat Patricio Moreno 52%-48%.
Then, in 2018, a mere 417-vote margin put Rodriguez into the House. Borrero’s win managed to buck that trend, as he improved on the party’s 2018 showing.
Borrero competed by framing Porras as a “liberal Democrat” who wants to defund the police.
“Democrats, right now, they’re not on the side of police and law enforcement,” Borrero added. “I support the police. They don’t.”
At issue is what qualifies as “defunding” the police. Some left-wing advocates are pushing to abolish and wholly rework police departments. Porras said she wouldn’t go that far, but does agree with shifting some funding around.
“What I would like to see is some resources being reallocated from the police and into community service programs that can handle some of the things that currently our police officers are handling they really shouldn’t be handling, like mental health services and homelessness,” Porras said.
Porras had one advantage where Estevez lagged in 2018: money. Rodriguez outraised Estevez by a massive $332,000 to $14,000 margin — and still the contest was razor close. Not only has Porras managed to avoid such a large cash gap, she has actually held a money advantage for most of the General Election season. Borrero won Tuesday regardless.
