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LiberalMind endorses Carlos Gimenez
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026, and early voting is underway in Florida. This is the whole race — the records, the claims against each candidate, and what the sources actually show. Read the research, and decide which flaw you can live with.
The setup
Florida's 28th District — Miami-Dade's southern tier — is the exception in this year's Florida coverage: its boundaries were left unchanged by the 2026 redraw (map HB 1-D, passed April 29, signed May 4) that moved 21 of the state's 28 districts (AllCiv). Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R) has held the seat since January 2021. Every major forecaster rates it Solid Republican (AllCiv). No 2026 PVI was captured in this pass; we carry the district on the unanimous forecaster consensus rather than invent a number. The Democratic nominee is Phil Ehr — a rematch of 2024 — and Eddy Rojas is on the ballot as an independent/NPA candidate. Neither Gimenez nor Ehr faced a competitive August primary. Ehr raised $508,000 to Gimenez's $722,000 through September/October FEC reports (KnowYourReps).
Carlos Gimenez (Republican)
The record: Gimenez's biography is a Miami-Dade life: born in Cuba and brought to the United States as a child, a Miami firefighter who rose to fire chief, then Miami-Dade County mayor from 2011 to 2020, then Congress — he won this seat in 2020 by defeating Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. In the House he serves on the Armed Services Committee and the Select Committee on Strategic Competition with the CCP, and he chairs the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security (AllCiv).
Pros: The deepest combined record in this Florida set — executive service running a county of nearly three million people, then three terms in Congress with committee work on defense, China competition, and homeland security that matches his biography.
Cons: Three terms in an unchanged, safe district produce few independence tests; the file locates no break in either direction. The ordinary caveat, priced as such.
The flaw, plainly: No documented flaw in the file.
Phil Ehr (Democratic)
The record: Ehr is the 2024 Democratic nominee returned for the rematch: he lost that race 64.6% to 35.4% (MIT Election Lab via KnowYourReps). He has raised a credible $508,000 — roughly seventy cents on the incumbent's dollar, the most competitive challenger fundraising in this set — and he has no prior elected office located and no documented break with his party toward our values.
Pros: A serious, funded second campaign in a district his party concedes in its ratings if not in its efforts; a challenger who has now run the full course of this race once and come back.
Cons: The first running of this race produced a 29-point margin, the forecasters are unanimous, and his file still contains no service record and no exception case — persistence is a virtue, not a Manchin test.
The flaw, plainly: Ehr's flaw is the caucus. His campaign is real; the exception case is absent.
Eddy Rojas (Independent)
Rojas is on the ballot as an independent/NPA candidate and has filed no FEC reports (KnowYourReps). A ballot presence, printed as such.
OUR CALL
LiberalMind endorses Carlos Gimenez.
A proven conservative whose record runs from a firehouse to a county mayor's office to three terms in Congress, in the one district the new map left alone, against a funded and persistent challenger who has already lost this race by 29 points and carries his party's program without a documented break. The doctrine resolves it directly.
This race is one of hundreds in LiberalMind's Election 2026 coverage. For the complete breakdown — every race, claim by claim — go to liberalmindhq.com.
Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.
Sources
- AllCiv — FL-28 race compilation, 2026 (Gimenez's biography and committee assignments; the district's boundaries unchanged by the 2026 redraw; every major forecaster at Solid Republican; the uncompetitive primaries)
- KnowYourReps — FL-28 compilation (Ehr's 2024 result, 64.6%–35.4%, via MIT Election Lab; the FEC figures through Sept./Oct. 2026; Rojas's lack of FEC reports)
- Ballotpedia-lineage BallotReady 2026 general list (the three-candidate roster)
- Ballotpedia News — May 11, 2026 (HB 1-D passage and signing): https://news.ballotpedia.org/2026/05/11/new-congressional-maps-in-florida-tennessee-aim-to-shift-five-more-districts-to-republicans-ahead-of-2026-midterms/
Winner: Carlos Gimenez (Republican) — called by the Associated Press. This result was appended on November 4, 2026 (results wave 1); the original article above is unchanged, exactly as published before Election Day.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.