ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The midterm elections are days away, and the race for Florida\u2019s 9th Congressional District has been one of the most closely watched in the state.<\/p>\n
All week, News 6 has sat down with both candidates running to represent the newly redrawn district, stretching from Orlando down to Lake Okeechobee. On Wednesday, incumbent Democrat Darren Soto and Republican military veteran Dan Green weighed in on affordability. Thursday, they tackled the national deficit. Friday, each man made his closing argument \u2014 and explained why he deserves your vote.<\/p>\n
Soto: A record of delivering for Central Florida<\/p>\n
Soto pointed to years of secured federal funding as proof he gets results for the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a record of delivering billions of dollars for Central Florida, and I live right here in Central Florida,\u201d Soto said.<\/p>\n
He cited several specific projects he said he helped bring to the region, including the I-4 expansion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe helped bring back the $3.4 billion I-4 project that\u2019s under expansion,\u201d Soto said. \u201cWe helped bring over half a billion dollars to Orlando International Airport to help build and expand Terminal C.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the growth of the Lake Nona area as evidence of the district\u2019s transformation during his tenure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started, Lake Nona was cow pastures,\u201d Soto said. \u201cNow it is a medical juggernaut.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green: Time for new leadership<\/p>\n
Green pushed back on the idea that a lack of political experience disqualifies him, pointing to his academic background and work in Florida politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a PhD in American politics from George Washington University, and I have worked on many different campaigns helping other public officials run,\u201d Green said. \u201cI ran the veterans coalition for Governor DeSantis in his reelection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green also argued that Soto\u2019s decade in office has come at a cost to the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy opponent has been in office now for 10 years,\u201d Green said. \u201cI think in a lot of ways, he\u2019s taken the district for granted, and I don\u2019t think his values are aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Your vote, your choice<\/p>\n
Election Day is this Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Watch both candidates\u2019 full interviews now at ClickOrlando.com.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The midterm elections are days away, and the race for Florida\u2019s 9th Congressional District has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[8184,2715,28,139,141,140,99],"class_list":["post-442382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-election-2026","tag-elections","tag-florida","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}