Jacob Ogles
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) just added Whitney Fox to its Red to Blue program.
That puts the Pinellas Democrat on among those candidates House Democrats consider most likely to flip a Republican-held district. Fox in August won the Democratic nomination to face U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a St. Petersburg Republican, in November.
“Pinellas County voters are tired of Anna Paulina Luna’s far-right extremism in Congress,” said U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, a Washington Democrat and Chair of the DCCC.
“Instead of working to lower costs and strengthen border security, Luna is constantly chasing headlines and sowing dysfunction. Whitney Fox is the pragmatic, solutions-oriented leader that Floridians deserve. She will put their needs above petty partisanship and is ready to come to Congress and fight for the people.”
Naming Fox to the Red to Blue program signals to national donors the belief she can win the battleground district. Up until this point, only 30 Democratic House candidates in the country were named to that list for the 2022 election cycle. Fox is one of three Democrats added on Thursday.
Fox is the only Florida candidate in the Red to Blue program out of 20 running in Republican-held U.S. House districts.
Luna, a freshman, flipped Florida’s 13th Congressional District from Democratic to Republican control in 2022 as the GOP overperformed statewide in the Sunshine State. She previously ran in 2020 and lost to then-U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a St. Petersburg Democrat who ran for Governor in 2022 instead of seeking re-election.
During the redistricting process in 2022, a congressional map demanded by Gov. Ron DeSantis changed the configuration of the district from one where Democrat Joe Biden won a majority of votes cast in 2020. Under the current lines, Republican Donald Trump won 53% of the vote to Biden’s 46%.
In 2022, 58% of voters favored DeSantis over Crist and 56% supported GOP U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s re-election over Democrat Val Demings. Luna defeated Democrat Eric Lynn with 53% of the vote.
