Mario Díaz-Balart

Díaz-Balart gave up his seat in the state house to run in the newly created 25th District, which included most of western Miami-Dade County, part of Collier County and the mainland portion of Monroe County.

He won with 64% of the vote.

Unlike the 25th, the 21st has long been considered the Miami area's most Republican district.

No other party even fielded a candidate when filing closed on April 30, handing Díaz-Balart the seat.

In May, the Herald reported that Mary Barzee Flores, a former judge who had at first decided to run in the 27th district, had opted instead to run for Díaz-Balart's seat.

Mario Rafael Díaz-Balart Caballero (born September 25, 1961) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 26th congressional district.

Díaz-Balart was born in 1961 in Fort Lauderdale, to Cuban parents, the late Cuban politician Rafael Díaz-Balart, and his wife, Hilda Caballero Brunet.

He is a member of the Díaz-Balart family: His aunt, Mirta Díaz-Balart, was the first wife of Cuban president Fidel Castro.

Her son, and his cousin, was Fidel Ángel "Fidelito" Castro Díaz-Balart.

His uncle is the Cuban-Spanish painter Waldo Díaz-Balart.

He studied political science at the University of South Florida before beginning his public service career as an aide to then-Miami Mayor Xavier Suárez in 1985.

In the same year, he changed his political party affiliation from Democratic to Republican.

Díaz-Balart was elected to the Florida House in 1988 and to the Florida Senate in 1992.

His brother Lincoln Díaz-Balart represented Florida's 21st District from 1993 to 2011.

He has two other brothers, José Díaz-Balart, a journalist, and Rafael Díaz-Balart, a banker.

It was only the third time that a Democrat had filed to run in this district, which had been numbered as the 21st from 1993 to 2013.

He returned to the Florida House in 2000.

A Republican, he was elected in 2002, and his district includes much of southwestern Miami-Dade County, including Hialeah, and much of the northern portion of the Everglades.

After Representative Alcee Hastings's death in April 2021, Díaz-Balart became the dean (or longest-serving member) of Florida's congressional delegation.

He was unopposed for reelection in 2004, and won a third term with 58% of the vote in 2006.

In 2008, Díaz-Balart faced his strongest challenge to date in Joe García, former executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation and former chairman of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party.

Díaz-Balart defeated Garcia with 53% of the vote.

Former Hialeah mayor Raúl Martínez, a Democrat who had challenged Lincoln Díaz-Balart in what was the 21st in 2008, said the 25th district "is very hard to win for a Democrat, especially if you're not Hispanic and you don't speak Spanish."

On February 11, 2010, Díaz-Balart announced his intention to seek election in Florida's 21st congressional district—being vacated by his brother, Lincoln Díaz-Balart—rather than the 25th district.

For the 118th Congress:

Díaz-Balart was reelected unopposed in 2012 in the renumbered 25th district.

In 2014, Díaz-Balart ran unopposed.

In 2015, Díaz-Balart was one of 60 Republicans voting to uphold President Barack Obama's 2014 executive order banning federal contractors from making hiring decisions that discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

In 2016, Díaz-Balart beat Democrat Alina Valdes, 62.4% to 37.6%.

Valdes, who had lost to him in 2016, was a candidate in the Democratic primary.

In April, Annisa Karim, who is active in the Democratic Party, announced that she too would run in the primary.

The Miami Herald reported in April 2018 that Díaz-Balart seemed a shoo-in for reelection in November.

In the November 2018 general election, Díaz-Balart defeated Barzee Flores, 60.5% to 39.5%.

As of January 2018, Díaz-Balart had voted with his party in 92.4% of votes in the 115th United States Congress and voted in line with President Trump's position in 93.1% of votes.

He is a founding member of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, a caucus of Hispanic Republican congressmen.

In May 2019, Díaz-Balart voted to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, credit, and the jury system under the Equality Act. He joined seven other Republicans and 228 Democrats in supporting the legislation, which passed the United States House of Representatives during the 116th Congress.

In February 2021, Díaz-Balart changed his position on the legislation, voting against it during the 117th Congress on the basis that it did not protect individuals or organizations who oppose LGBTQ rights.

In a statement released after his vote, he claimed Democrats ignored Republicans' issues with the bill and "doubled down on some of the most troubling issues, including sabotaging religious freedom."

In 2021, Díaz-Balart co-sponsored the Fairness for All Act, the Republican alternative to the Equality Act.

The bill would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity, and protect the free exercise of religion.