Republican Anna Paulina Luna (left) defended her CD-13 seat against Democrat Whitney Fox. (Photos from the Luna and Fox campaigns).
Anna Paulina Luna, the conservative Republican incumbent in Florida’s 13th Congressional District in Pinellas County, has defeated Democrat Whitney Fox in the Sunshine State’s most closely watched congressional race. With 88% of the vote in, Luna led Democrat Whitney Fox, 55%-45%.
Republicans control 20 of the 28 congressional seats in Florida, and the consensus among political analysts going into Election Day was that none of them would flip to the opposing party. However, Democrats put a lot of energy into boosting Fox, a moderate Democrat.
Luna, 35, is a Southern California native and U.S. Air Force veteran whose endorsement by Donald Trump helped catapult her to the GOP nomination for Congress in 2022. She then defeated Democrat Eric Lynn by 8 percentage points, 53%-45%.
The district has only become redder since then, but Fox, 37, campaigned on a platform that Luna was simply too radical for a district that historically has supported moderate-leaning Republicans and Democrats.
CD 13 was Democratic-leaning for three election cycles (2016-2022) after the district was redrawn following a Florida Supreme Court decision in 2015. But following the once-in-a-decade redistricting that occurred in 2022, Republicans, under the direction of Gov. Ron DeSantis, redrew the district to make it much more GOP-friendly. Fox said last week that despite that reality, she was drawing support from Republicans who were unhappy with Luna’s performance in her first term in Congress.
“It is a Republican district, but I’m happy to say we’ve gotten a lot of support from Republicans, independents and Democrats. … We have talked to many Republicans who are fed up with the fact that Luna – they gave her a shot. She does nothing with her time in Congress except cause chaos, chase culture war headlines, and the facts are in her record. They are looking for a pragmatic leader who’s actually going to Washington to fight for the people of Pinellas County, and that’s what they see in my candidacy.”
Luna has become a national star among Republicans who love Trump, and she is the cover girl of the latest Maxim magazine. She led the GOP-controlled House to censure California Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff for his actions while chair of the House Intelligence Committee. And she supported the impeachment of President Joe Biden.
She told the Phoenix on Monday that she is eager to go back to Washington to work with a Donald Trump led-White House, and specifically mentioned a bill that she co-sponsored with South Florida Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz called the Student Loan Interest Cap Act, which would improve student loan affordability by establishing a 3% cap on the interest rate of federal student loans.
“I have a very good relationship with the president, so I’ll be advocating for that,” she said.