Florida's 26th Congressional District

Florida's 26th Congressional District

Incumbent

Mario Diaz-Balart

Assumed office: January 3, 2023

Florida's 26th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives is represented by Mario Diaz-Balart (R).

As of the 2020 Census, Florida representatives represented an average of 770,376 residents. After the 2010 Census, each member represented 700,029 residents.

Elections

2024

See also: Florida's 26th Congressional District election, 2024

Florida's 26th Congressional District election, 2024 (August 20 Republican primary)

Florida's 26th Congressional District election, 2024 (August 20 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Florida District 26

Incumbent Mario Diaz-Balart defeated Joey David Atkins in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 26 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mario Diaz-Balart (R)	70.9	217,199
		Joey David Atkins (D)	29.1	89,072

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 306,271
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Joey David Atkins advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 26.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 26

Incumbent Mario Diaz-Balart defeated John Fratto and Richard Evans in the Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 26 on August 20, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mario Diaz-Balart	83.5	38,334
		John Fratto	9.5	4,378
		Richard Evans	6.9	3,178

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 45,890
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Ian Medina (R)

2022

See also: Florida's 26th Congressional District election, 2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Florida District 26

Incumbent Mario Diaz-Balart defeated Christine Alexandria Olivo in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 26 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mario Diaz-Balart (R)	70.9	143,240
		Christine Alexandria Olivo (D)	29.1	58,868

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 202,108
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Christine Alexandria Olivo advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 26.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 26

Incumbent Mario Diaz-Balart defeated Darren Dione Aquino in the Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 26 on August 23, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mario Diaz-Balart	84.3	36,861
		Darren Dione Aquino	15.7	6,885

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 43,746
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Ruth Swanson (R)

2020

See also: Florida's 26th Congressional District election, 2020

General election

General election for U.S. House Florida District 26

Carlos Gimenez defeated incumbent Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 26 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Carlos Gimenez (R)	51.7	177,223
		Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D)	48.3	165,407

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 342,630
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Incumbent Debbie Mucarsel-Powell advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 26.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 26

Carlos Gimenez defeated Omar Blanco in the Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 26 on August 18, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Carlos Gimenez	59.9	29,480
		Omar Blanco	40.1	19,721

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 49,201
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Irina Vilarino (R)

2018

See also: Florida's 26th Congressional District election, 2018

General election

General election for U.S. House Florida District 26

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell defeated incumbent Carlos Curbelo in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 26 on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D)	50.9	119,797
		Carlos Curbelo (R)	49.1	115,678

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 235,475 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Edward Bonilla (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 26

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell defeated Demetries Grimes in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Florida District 26 on August 28, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Debbie Mucarsel-Powell	63.5	21,002
		Demetries Grimes	36.5	12,098

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 33,100
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Ricky Junquera (D)
• Steven Machat (D)
• Steve Smith (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 26

Incumbent Carlos Curbelo defeated Souraya Faas in the Republican primary for U.S. House Florida District 26 on August 28, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Carlos Curbelo	84.0	29,508
		Souraya Faas	16.0	5,629

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 35,137
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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2016

The district was a battleground race in 2016.

See also: Florida's 26th Congressional District election, 2016

Florida's 26th Congressional District was a battleground district in 2016. Incumbent Carlos Curbelo (R) won re-election to his second term in 2016. He defeated Joe Garcia (D) and Jose Peixoto (I) in the general election on November 8, 2016. Garcia defeated Annette Taddeo to win the Democratic primary on August 30, 2016.

U.S. House, Florida District 26 General Election, 2016

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Carlos Curbelo Incumbent	53%	148,547
	Democratic	Joe Garcia	41.2%	115,493
	Independent	Jose Peixoto	5.9%	16,502
Total Votes				280,542
Source: Florida Division of Elections

U.S. House, Florida District 26 Democratic Primary, 2016

Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Joe Garcia	51.3%	14,834
Annette Taddeo	48.7%	14,108
Total Votes		28,942
Source: Florida Division of Elections

2014

See also: Florida's 26th Congressional District elections, 2014

Florida's 26th Congressional District was a battleground district in 2014. Incumbent Joe Garcia faced no challenger in the Democratic primary. In the Republican primary, Carlos Curbelo defeated Ed MacDougall, Joe Martinez, Lorenzo Palomares Starbuck and former U.S. Rep. David Rivera. Curbelo then beat incumbent Garcia in the general election on November 4, 2014.

U.S. House, Florida District 26 General Election, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Carlos Curbelo	51.5%	83,031
	Democratic	Joe Garcia Incumbent	48.5%	78,306
Total Votes				161,337
Source: Florida Division of Elections

2012

See also: Florida's 26th Congressional District elections, 2012

The 26th district of Florida held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 6, 2012. Democrat Joe Garcia won the election in the district.

U.S. House, Florida District 26 General Election, 2012

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Joe Garcia	53.6%	135,694
	Republican	David Rivera Incumbent	43%	108,820
	Independent	Angel Fernandez	2.3%	5,726
	Independent	Jose Peixoto	1.1%	2,717
Total Votes				252,957
Source: Florida Secretary of State "Official Election Results, 2012 General Election"

Redistricting

2020-2024

See also: Redistricting in Florida after the 2020 census

On March 27, 2024, the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida upheld the state's congressional map after it was struck down by a lower court on Sep. 2, 2023. As a result, this map was used for Florida's 2024 congressional elections. According to the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida's order:

“

This case involves constitutional challenges to the congressional districting map proposed by Governor Ron DeSantis and enacted by the Florida Legislature in 2022 ... Plaintiffs had to prove both discriminatory effects and a discriminatory purpose. They proved neither. Thus, [we] concur in the decision to grant judgment in the Secretary’s favor.

”

On December 1, 2023, the Florida First District Court of Appeal ruled 8-2 that the redistricting plan did not unconstitutionally limit Black voting power. The plaintiffs appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, which heard arguments on September 12, 2024.

On September 2, 2023, Leon County Circuit Court Judge J. Lee Marsh struck down enacted North Florida congressional districts and ordered the Legislature to redraw district boundaries. On June 2, 2022, the Florida Supreme Court had declined to block Florida's enacted congressional map, which Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law on April 22.

The Florida First District Court of Appeal had reinstated the congressional district boundaries on May 20, overruling Leon County Circuit Court Judge Layne Smith's temporary hold on the map. On May 11, Smith issued an order declaring Florida's enacted congressional map unconstitutional, saying, "The enacted map is unconstitutional under the Fair District amendment. It diminishes African-Americans’ ability to elect the representative of their choice." Smith also said a map drawn by a court-appointed special master should be substituted for the enacted map in the 2022 elections. The plaintiffs in the case filed an emergency appeal with the Florida Supreme Court on May 23, 2022, seeking a hold on the enacted congressional map.

DeSantis signed the original congressional map into law on April 22, 2022. The map bill was proposed and approved by the Florida State Legislature during a special session called for the purposes of redistricting. The Florida State Senate voted 24-15 to approve the map on April 20, and the Florida House of Representatives voted 68-34 to approve the map on April 21.

This was the second congressional map bill approved by the state legislature. DeSantis vetoed the first on March 29. Republican leaders in the legislature said on April 11 that they would wait to receive a map from DeSantis to support. DeSantis submitted a map to the legislature on April 13, which became the enacted map.

How does redistricting in Florida work? In Florida, both congressional and state legislative district lines are drawn by the state legislature. Congressional lines are adopted as regular legislation and are subject to gubernatorial veto. State legislative lines are passed via joint resolution and are not subject to gubernatorial veto. State legislative district maps are automatically submitted to the Florida Supreme Court for approval. In the event that the court rejects the lines, the legislature is given a second chance to draft a plan. If the legislature cannot approve a state legislative redistricting plan, the state attorney general must ask the state supreme court to draft a plan. There are no similar procedures in place for congressional districts.

The Florida Constitution requires that all districts, whether congressional or state legislative, be contiguous. Also, "where doing so does not conflict with minority rights, [districts] must be compact and utilize existing political and geographical boundaries where feasible." Districts cannot be drawn in such a way as to "favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent."

Florida District 26
until January 2, 2023

Click a district to compare boundaries.

Florida District 26
starting January 3, 2023

Click a district to compare boundaries.

2015

On July 9, 2015, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the state's congressional district map was unconstitutional. The suit was brought to the court by the League of Women Voters and a coalition of other voter groups. David King, lead attorney for the League of Women Voters, said of the ruling, "This is a complete victory for the people of Florida who passed the Fair District amendment and sought fair representation where the Legislature didn't pick their voters. The Supreme Court accepted every challenge we made and ordered the Legislature to do it over."

As a result of the ruling, eight congressional districts were ordered to be redrawn: FL-05, FL-13, FL-14, FL-21, FL-22, FL-25, FL-26 and FL-27. However, the redrawing of these districts had an effect on most of the state's other congressional districts as well. The court gave the legislature until August 25, 2015, to complete the redrawn map.

The House and Senate could not reach an agreement on a new map in late August. Each chamber presented its own map, but they did not agree on which map to use. As a result, Judge Terry Lewis scheduled a trial in order to pick a map. The trial began on September 24, 2015, and lasted for three days. Following the trial, Judge Lewis recommended a map to the Florida Supreme Court, which had the ultimate decision as to which map to use.

On December 2, 2015, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the map that was recommended by the voters' coalition.

In total, 24 of Florida's 27 congressional districts saw some change with the new map. The most drastic changes were made to the 5th and 10th Congressional Districts. The new 5th and 10th are each composed of less than 40 percent of their old seats. The redrawn map is displayed below.

2012

See also: Redistricting in Florida after the 2010 census

In 2011, the Florida State Legislature re-drew the congressional districts based on updated population information from the 2010 census. Florida's 26th Congressional District is a new district that was created as a result of the 2010 Census.

The new district was drawn to include portions of Monroe and Miami-Dade counties in the southern tip of Florida, including the Florida Keys.

District analysis

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

See also: FiveThirtyEight's elasticity scores

2026

Heading into the 2026 elections, based on results from the 2024 and 2020 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district is R+16. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 16 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Florida's 26th the 67th most Republican district nationally.

2024

Heading into the 2024 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+8. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 8 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Florida's 26th the 162nd most Republican district nationally.

Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Donald Trump (R) would have defeated Joe Biden (D) 58.9%-40.6%.

2022

Heading into the 2022 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+8. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 8 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Florida's 26th the 160th most Republican district nationally.

Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Joe Biden (D) would have received 40.6% of the vote in this district and Donald Trump (R) would have received 58.9%.

2018

Heading into the 2018 elections, based on results from the 2016 and 2012 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was D+6. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 6 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Florida's 26th Congressional District the 165th most Democratic nationally.

FiveThirtyEight's September 2018 elasticity score for states and congressional districts measured "how sensitive it is to changes in the national political environment." This district's elasticity score was 1.20. This means that for every 1 point the national political mood moved toward a party, the district was expected to move 1.20 points toward that party.

See also

• Redistricting in Florida
• Florida's 26th Congressional District election, 2024
• Florida's 26th Congressional District election, 2022
• Florida's 26th Congressional District election, 2020
• Florida's 26th Congressional District election, 2018

External links

• GovTrack District 26

Footnotes

[show]

Florida's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Ashley Moody (R)

Rick Scott (R)

Representatives

District 1

Jimmy Patronis (R)

District 2

Neal Dunn (R)

District 3

Kat Cammack (R)

District 4

Aaron Bean (R)

District 5

John Rutherford (R)

District 6

Randy Fine (R)

District 7

Cory Mills (R)

District 8

Mike Haridopolos (R)

District 9

Darren Soto (D)

District 10

Maxwell Frost (D)

District 11

Daniel Webster (R)

District 12

Gus Bilirakis (R)

District 13

Anna Luna (R)

District 14

Kathy Castor (D)

District 15

Laurel Lee (R)

District 16

Vern Buchanan (R)

District 17

Greg Steube (R)

District 18

Scott Franklin (R)

District 19

Byron Donalds (R)

District 20

Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D)

District 21

Brian Mast (R)

District 22

Lois Frankel (D)

District 23

Jared Moskowitz (D)

District 24

Frederica Wilson (D)

District 25

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D)

District 26

Mario Diaz-Balart (R)

District 27

Maria Elvira Salazar (R)

District 28

Carlos Gimenez (R)

Republican Party (22)

Democratic Party (8)