EMILY’s List puts Carlos Giménez, María Elvira Salazar on notice for 2022

Carlos Giménez and Maria Salazar both voted to supply birth control for female soldiers.

EMILY’s List — a national organization aimed at helping elect Democratic women who support abortion rights — has placed two South Florida congressional seats on its list of top targets nationwide in 2022.

That target lists 27 seats across the country currently held by Republicans. Two of the 27 are in South Florida. EMILY’s List will work to oust Rep. Carlos Giménez in Florida’s 26th Congressional District and Rep. María Elvira Salazar in Florida’s 27th Congressional District.

Each cycle, EMILY’s List jumps into state and federal races around the country in order to help elect Democratic women candidates who support abortion rights. In a Tuesday morning news release, the organization highlighted Republicans’ unified opposition to the recent Joe Biden-backed COVID-19 relief package in explaining its push to expand the Democratic House majority.

“When faced with an unprecedented health crisis, these members all voted against the American Rescue Plan, which aimed to expand vaccine distribution, increase the child tax credit, reopen schools, and support the economy,” the release reads.

“It is clear that these House Republicans are actively impeding progress, and must be voted out. EMILY’s List is actively targeting these flippable districts and we look forward to replacing each of these members with Democratic pro-choice women who will better the lives of their constituents.”

That Giménez and Salazar would end up on the group’s new target list is no surprise. Last month, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) put out a list of 22 “districts in play” nationwide. CD 26 and CD 27 were also both on the DCCC’s list.

That has less to do with any specific vote history from Giménez and Salazar — both only a few months into their freshman terms — and more to do with the competitiveness of each district. Giménez and Salazar won their respective races by around 3 percentage points. Both ousted Democratic incumbents who had won those seats in 2018.

Those facts put both contests in play in 2022, though so far no Democratic candidates have officially emerged. Though former Reps. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Donna Shalala lost their respective races in CD 26 and CD 27 last November, both are rumored to be considering another run.