Cuban-American Reps. win in Florida

The Republican Party lost big on Election Day aside from the presidential race; the Democrats majority in the House of Representatives was strengthened and they are close to having a filibuster-proof Senate. Yet after suffering their “worst electoral drubbing in more than three decades” one of the few victories for the GOP occurred in Florida.

A trio of Cuban-American politicos- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and Mario Diaz-Balart- faced difficult battles against Democratic opponents. At times the campaigns got heated with ugly accusations and for a while it seemed iffy that the three representatives would all be reelected.

The Latino electorate in Florida may’ve leaned towards the Democrats in the presidential race yet Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers (image) held on to their seats:

With nearly all of the votes counted in Miami-Dade, and all of the precincts reporting in Collier County, Mario Diaz-Balart emerged with a 52 to 48 percent victory…

Lincoln Diaz-Balart scored a remarkably large double-digit win over former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez to win his ninth term on Capitol Hill...

Ros-Lehtinen cruised to her 11th term with 58 percent of the vote to vanquish her challenger, Colombian-American businesswoman Annette Taddeo…

''It had all the makings of me going down,'' Ros-Lehtinen said. ``If I can make it in this election, I can make it in any election.''

Image- Time
Sources- The Latin Americanist, MarketWatch, Los Angeles Times, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, miamiherald.com