Michael Carbonara ready to challenge Debbie Wasserman Schultz, regardless of the district’s lines

Michael Carbonara. Image via campaign.

Republican Michael Carbonara formally launched a challenge to U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the longest-serving Democrat in Florida’s congressional delegation.

The Cooper City business owner has closely followed redistricting conversations in the state, which could turn Florida’s 25th Congressional District into a battleground. But Carbonara feels confident the voters in the South Florida district, as it’s drawn now, already hunger for change.

“That’s why I filed months ago, before there was any talk of redistricting,” Carbonara said. “So from our campaign, we have all the resources we need, and I feel that I’m the candidate to beat Debbie Wasserman Schultz next year.”

Carbonara opened a federal campaign account in April and pulled $675,000 in loans to finance a race. He launched the campaign formally with a campaign video on Wednesday that focused on the first-time candidate’s business background.

He has launched several companies, including a payments industry business in 2011, a fintech firm, Ibanara, in 2020, and a genetic mapping firm, Gattaca Genomics, in 2024. He said that it will give him a greater understanding of the modern business world than most members of Congress may claim. He praises recent policy changes, such as President Donald Trump signing the GENIUS Act, which sets a U.S.-backed global digital currency.

“With technology, especially blockchain, the world economy is changing at rapid levels,” he said. “Cross-border payment is really changing the world, because now the economies are so intermingled. There’s DeFi and blockchain, which, if you look at what the genius bill is doing, allows the exporting of the U.S. dollar to consumers around the world at near-instant speeds. So what’s happening is, people of the world have access to a stable fiat currency through a stablecoin.

“One thing that Congress, I think there’s some people there that know what they’re doing. There obviously is an architect in the GENIUS bill. What we’re going to see is a massive exportation of the U.S. dollar around the world for the next few years.”

He said Wasserman Schultz, who served as a state Senator before her tenure in Congress, lacks the same private sector experience.

“She’s just been bad for Florida for a very long time. She’s a career politician. I believe she’s been in office starting with the state back in 1992,” he said. “Debbie Wasserman Schultz routinely, in her tenure in office as a career politician, has voted for higher taxes, bigger government, and has been eroding those freedoms. I’m running to restore the freedoms.”

He stresses that his own wife, Sonia, and in-laws fled communist Cuba. His wife’s grandfather was a political prisoner for 23 years under Fidel Castro’s regime, he said. That creates an empathy and familial connection with the Cuban diaspora, many of whom fled the island nation and its political state.

But it still could be an uphill battle challenging Wasserman Schultz, who first won election to Congress in 2004 and is currently on the House Appropriations Committee. The Weston Democrat won re-election in November against Republican Chris Eddy, garnering almost 55% of the vote.

But in a further sign of South Florida’s rightward slide, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris won less than 52% of the vote to Trump’s almost 47%, according to MCI Maps. And as the Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis promise a re-evaluation of political boundaries before the Midterms, most expect the borders of Wasserman Schultz’s district to shift and perhaps include more Republican-friendly portions of Miami-Dade County while shedding some Democratic parts of Broward County.

Carbonara also notes Trump has started efforts to curtail mail-in voting across the country, a process that currently tends to favor Democrats.

While he declines to discuss what he wants to see in terms of changes to law, he hopes to convince GOP supporters nationwide that the South Florida district deserves attention.

“I hope everybody steps in, because it’s not just me running the race,” he said. “I’m representing the people of this district, and I want to win this race for the people. We encourage all the people in the district to donate and to vote. But every bit matters, and it demonstrates to the other side that we need change in this district.”