Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) has lost his race to Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, giving Democrats a key seat in a good sign for their hopes for House control.
Mucarsel-Powell led Curbelo by a narrow 51 percent to 49 percent with 91 percent of precincts reporting. The Associated Press has called the race.
Curbelo was one of the House’s most moderate Republicans, leading the charge to try to force his own leadership to give a vote to return legal status to DREAMers and long arguing his party needed to take climate change seriously.
He remained stronger positioned to win than almost any other suburban Republican, keeping in the fight even as national GOP groups threw in the towel in a number of other Democratic-leaning districts as they scrambled to preserve their majority. But the natural partisanship of his Miami-area district, which went for Hillary Clinton by 16 points, was too much for Curbelo to withstand.
His loss is part of what’s shaping up to be a brutal night for Republicans in swing and suburban Democratic-leaning districts.
