Today’s entry: @brianmuddradio I’ve heard you cover the voting record of Congressional reps. previously. Doesn’t Charlie Crist always vote with Biden? Isn’t a vote for Crist essentially a vote for Joe Biden running Florida? Thx.
Bottom Line: Yep, you’re right. I have on occasion provided a view of the actual votes of our Congressional Representatives as a means of seeing if the actions of our elected officials meet their rhetoric back here at home. I most recently covered voting records in mid-August with one of my takeaways that day in what I called...A tale of two numbers. Rather than reinventing the wheel here’s what I said then...
A tale of two numbers. Here’s the first one. 36%. What’s that? President Biden’s current approval rating in Florida. Here’s the second one. 100%. That’s the voting record of every Florida Democrat in Congress (save one – Stephanie Murphy who isn’t running is at 97.1%) in favor of President Biden's agenda.
Charlie Crist – 100% with Biden. Val Demmings – 100% with Biden. Lois Frankel, The Hat (Frederica Wilson) – all 100% in favor of President Biden’s agenda. There has been no distance between Florida’s Congressional Democrats and President Biden of which 64% of Floridians do not approve. Ironically, as Charlie Crist is now running his Obama hug campaign, attempting to prove that he really was a democrat, when he was a republican, but prior to becoming an independent – in an effort win the Democrat’s primary for governor... His voting record is the best evidence he’s got. You can’t vote harder left than Charlie has in congress, just like all of Florida’s Democrats. So, if you like Joe Biden, you’ll love Charlie Crist. But then again, isn’t that part of his problem?
So now that we’re down to crunch time with votes already pouring in across the state, here’s an update to that story, in addressing your question, in addition to providing additional perspective regarding the voting records of South Florida’s representatives. President Biden’s approval rating remains at just 36%. And the voting records of Florida’s Congressional Representatives remain about the same as well. Notably, Charlie Crist resigned from Congress earlier this year to run for Governor, thus his voting record remains the same now as it was then.
Here are Florida’s Congressional Reps ranked by voting record with Biden.
Those who’ve voted 100% of the time with President Biden’s position (in order of district number):
- Al Lawson, Darren Soto, Val Demings, Charlie Crist, Kathy Castor, Sheila Cherfilus McCormick, Lois Frankel, Ted Deutch, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Frederica Wilson.
- 97.8%: Stephanie Murphy
That accounts for all Florida’s Congressional Democrats. As for Florida’s Republicans... Here’s how South Florida’s Republicans have voted relative to President Biden’s position:
- Maria Elvira Salazar: 35.4%
- Carlos Gimenez: 27.8%
- Mario Diaz-Balart: 24%
- Brian Mast: 13.4%
You’ll notice a couple differences straight away here. Unlike the Democrats which voted in lock step with party leadership and most specifically President Biden’s position, indicating there is no political difference between them and him, that’s not at all the case with SFL’s Republicans. Each has a different voting record indicating a level of self-direction on issues that varies from both Republican party leadership and each other. While we’re doing this exercise, here’s a look at Florida’s two Senators.
Biden voting record:
- Marco Rubio: 28.8%
- Rick Scott: 14.5%
Once again, we see a significant difference between the voting records of Florida’s two senators which stand independent of party leadership in addition to each other. This exercise illustrates the differences, not just between political candidates based on real voting records, as opposed to rhetoric, but also the contrast in the way Florida’s politicians respond to their party leadership.
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