In an election season with few debates, there was a spirited one for U.S. House Friday at the Tampa Tiger Bay Club. It's for a close contest for what used to be a safe seat for Tampa Congresswoman Kathy Castor.
Castor has served in Congress for 20 years. But her district - along with many others - was redrawn earlier this year by the Republican-dominated legislature, making it more competitive.
District 14 now represents much of Tampa and southern and eastern Hillsborough. The legislature shifted it south and east to more conservative-leaning areas.
Castor's opponent, Republican former state Rep. Mike Beltran, calls himself "Maga Mike". He said there needs to be a change on Capitol Hill.
"We have a very clear choice in November," he told the crowd gathered at the Cuban Club ballroom in Ybor City. "We can continue the course we have here in Florida protecting individual liberties, separation of powers, and limited government, or we can vote for the other party. We can get confiscatory taxation, runaway inflation, infringement of the constitution, court packing, open borders, and crime-filled streets."
But Castor said Beltran would be a "rubber stamp" for the Trump administration.
"Mr. Beltran has said that the president... is 100% of the time he's going to be with him, that the commander in chief gets to do whatever he wants," she said. "We need independent advocates like me who will stand up to these powerful special interests and always keep our neighbors front and center."
Beltran retorted that he would be an independent voice on Capitol Hill.
"I've worked across the aisle in Tallahassee. I was one of the most independent voting Republicans," he said. "I've worked across the aisle on good legislation that we've enacted and I'll continue to do that when I go to Washington, so, I was very independent voting, voted against all sorts of special interest to big pharma, big tech, landlords, developers, trial lawyers, insurance companies."
They also differ greatly on education.
Beltran said the federal government needs to stay out of education and leave it to local governments.
"As a congressman, I'm not going to do that much on education. I look at Article 1 Section 8 of the United States Constitution. It doesn't say anything about education," he said. "Ideally, it's done at the local level and the local authorities do a good job. I don't think the federal government should be coming in and telling you... how to do your job."
Castor said the federal government has a lot to do with education.
"I think your federal partner has a very significant role in education. We provide the Pell Grant. We provide research dollars to the Moffitt Cancer Center and the University of South Florida," she said.
"We oversee Title One schools, very significant investment. We help with students with disabilities," Castor said. "It's very important that the extreme politicians in Washington right now are trying to gut again to provide massive tax breaks to billionaires and billionaires on the voucher system in Florida. We're talking about public money. It should be subjected to the same accountability measures that happens in public schools."
And they also differ on the role of the feds in transportation. Castor wants more government involvement in mass transit, while Beltran said he opposes having taxpayers subsidize what he calls 'special interests."
Also appearing at the event were the Democratic candidates for two other Congressional districts in the Tampa Bay area.
Former Hillsborough County Commissioner Kimberly Overman faces incumbent Republican Congressman Gus Bilirakis in District 12. It has been shifted to include northwestern Hillsborough and western Pasco counties.
Overman opposes dismantling the U.S. Department of Education.
"I've been mortified by what's happened at the federal level to the Department of Education. That actually puts at risk the many students that would relied on being treated fairly and having an opportunity to have access to education," she said. "So if at the federal level we need to set standards for education because our states aren't willing to do it, then maybe we should consider that and make sure that every child has a fair education."
Bilirakis - who has served 20 years in Congress - did not appear, but has said he supports returning decision making to local schools.
In District 15, Democrat Robert People is challenging incumbent Republican Congresswoman Laurel Lee. The district stretches from northeast Hillsborough to eastern Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties.
People said there's enough money to fund wars and tax cuts for the wealthy, but not for health care.
"I'm an advocate for Medicare for all. We continue to hear how much things cannot be done in Congress, and the answer is not that they can't be done, it's that it won't be done," he said.
"And we see whenever there is something that needs to be paid for, how quickly the government finds the money for that, right? So we have these forever wars that we're involved with that no one asked for. We have billionaires, you know, billionaire tax cuts, as was already mentioned, so the money is definitely there for us to make this happen."
Lee, who was elected to Congress in 2022, did not attend.
