U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, the Miami-Dade Republican and part of a legendary Cuban-American political family, could end up representing a large swath of southwest Broward County after this year’s elections.
It’s one of the all-but-certain results from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ successful push to change the boundaries of the state’s congressional districts in a way that’s aimed at electing four more Republicans and four fewer Democrats from Florida.
To fulfill that objective, the DeSantis-crafted remap ratified Wednesday by the Republican-controlled Legislature changed the borders of congressional districts in a way that moves Republican voters into what had been Democratic districts.
The net effect is to give Florida 24 Republican districts and four Democratic districts. Currently the state has 20 Republican and eight Democratic seats. President Donald Trump pressed Republican states to change their districts in advance of the 2026 midterm elections; several Democratic states responded by changing theirs as well.
A prime target of state and national Republicans for years has been U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee.
To give her a more Republican district and make her reelection more difficult this year, the new map took away some of the southwest Broward territory she represents and added it to Diaz-Balart’s district. It put some of Diaz-Balart’s Republican territory into a new district that includes Wasserman Schultz’s home.
She and U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Parkland are the South Florida Democrats most affected by the redistricting.
Diaz-Balart is the most affected Republican in South Florida, with his 26th Congressional District seeing significant changes.
The prospect of Diaz-Balart representing part of the county is a welcome development for Diana Taub, president of the Southwest Broward Republican Organization.
“I am thrilled to see the possibility of Diaz-Balart representing the area. I think the people of the community will welcome him with open arms!” Taub said via test. “There is no reason Florida should not continue to lead, which includes leading in Congress!
“The trigger is population, especially west! Both the state and Broward County have experienced an explosion in growth! This growth demands representation,” which she said the redistricting would address.
Geography
The current 26th Congressional District is anchored in Miami-Dade County. It goes from the city of Miami and Hialeah west, through Collier County to pick up more Republicans, to the Gulf of Mexico.
The new 26th District adds part of Southwest Broward and puts Collier County in a new district that includes Wasserman Schultz’s home. The easternmost border in the northern part of the district is Florida’s Turnpike.
Parts of Cooper City, Davie, Miramar, Pembroke Pines and Southwest Ranches are in the new Diaz-Balart district.
The district would still be anchored by Miami-Dade County, including the cities of Doral, Hialeah and Miami Lakes, as well as most of Miami International Airport. It would also include the Everglades west of the populated areas in both counties.
Politics
The new district is a Republican one, though not as strongly as the current 26th District.
Matthew Isbell, a Democratic data analyst, said the territory in the new 26th “is still very likely to remain Republican.” However, he wrote in his Substack, Diaz-Balart “has now suddenly found himself in a district he cannot entirely keep his eye off of.”
The current district voted for Trump over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by 35 percentage points in 2024.
In the new district, Trump ran 18 percentage points ahead of Harris, Isbell found. The 2020 results show it was more competitive, with Trump running 1 point ahead of Democrat Joe Biden. Ten years ago, Democrat Hillary Clinton won the territory, Isbell said.
Analysts Kyle Kondik and J. Miles Coleman, writing at the nonpartisan University of Virginia Center for Politics “Crystal Ball,” also noted the strong Democratic presidential vote in 2016.
“Diaz-Balart himself has performed so well in his past elections, though, that we’d still expect him to be fine even if the district snaps back to being much more competitive in 2026 (as seems quite possible in Latino-heavy, pro-Trump districts both in Florida and elsewhere),” they wrote.
Last week, in an attempt to blunt Florida Republican redistricting efforts, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said national Democrats would respond and “aggressively target for defeat” eight incumbent Florida Republicans in November.
His list included the three Republicans based in Miami-Dade County, including Diaz-Balart.
“If Florida Republicans proceed with this illegal scheme, they will only create more prime pick-up opportunities for Democrats,” Jeffries said in a statement to Punchbowl News.
Mitch Ceasar, a former Broward Republican Party chair, said Diaz-Balart would likely have an edge, given his fundraising ability and name recognition. But with polls showing many no party affiliation/independent voters and some Hispanic voters unhappy with Trump “these (Republican) seats may not be as safe as those who draw them anticipate.”
Congressman Mario Diaz Balart spoke before President Donald Trump unveiled the changes he made in his first term to former President Barack Obama’s policies toward Cuba, on June 12, 2017. Mike Stocker, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Diaz-Balart has a significant campaign war chest. His April filing with the Federal Election Committee showed his campaign had $2.2 million in cash, and no debts, as of March 31.
Diaz-Balart’s office did not respond to questions about the district or his reelection plans.
DeSantis has ridiculed Jeffries’ threat, including on Thursday. “We’ve got this guy Hakeem Jeffries. He goes out there and he’s like we’re going to do ‘maximum warfare’ against Republicans,” the governor said. “Go ahead, make my day. You want to come down here and spend money in Florida, roll the dice and take your chances.”
Who is MDB?
Diaz-Balart, 66, is the longest serving member of the U.S. House from Florida, making him dean of the state’s congressional delegation. Though he’s from Miami-Dade County, he was born in Fort Lauderdale.
He was first elected to Congress in 2002, after serving in the Florida House and Florida Senate. Years ago, his congressional district included some of the same southwest Broward territory he’s poised to represent again.
For eight years, he served alongside his brother, U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who represented an adjacent district. One of his other brothers, Jose Diaz-Balart, is a news anchor for NBC News and Telemundo.
Their father, Rafael Díaz-Balart, was a leader in the Cuban House of Representative before the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power. His aunt was Castro’s first wife.
For years, Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart and former U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen were a powerful trio of U.S. political opposition to the Castro dictatorship, influencing national policy. Mario Diaz-Balart is a leading opponent of the regime run by Castro’s successors.
In 2010, Lincoln Diaz-Balart announced he was retiring, and Mario Diaz-Balart ran for reelection in his brother’s more favorable Republican seat. Lincoln Diaz-Balart died last year.
Mario Diaz-Balart is one of a dwindling number of lawmakers who come from an era in which Democrats and Republicans cooperated more and were less inclined to engage in today’s approach of constant political warfare.
In a 2011 interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, he praised Wasserman Schultz after then-President Barack Obama tapped her to take over the Democratic National Committee.
“Debbie and I have a million differences. What I can tell you is that I really, really respect her and I admire her…. She works at this harder than anybody. She’s really bright and talented. On issues, whew. We have huge differences. But I happen to be a huge fan and a huge admirer, a huge admirer of Debbie’s,” he said.
When Democratic U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings died in 2021, he issued the most gracious statement of any Republican, calling him “more than a colleague; he was a dear friend of mine and my family.”
As the Republican Party has changed during the Trump era, Diaz-Balart has moved with it, and he’s a supporter of the president.
“I consider him one of the nicest congresspeople,” said Lourdes Diaz, a Pembroke Pines Hispanic media and branding strategist, who has also been president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus chapter in Broward and president of the Pembroke Pines Democratic Club.
However, she said, that doesn’t overcome his Republican voting record in Congress. “They will vote the way they are told to vote, and they have an allegiance to the MAGA movement, to the president, and not to the people.”
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.