New Poll Shows Joe Garcia Leading in Congressional Contest
In new poll, likely voters indicate Curbelo is an unpopular Congressman and throw support behind Garcia
Miami, FL- A brand new poll has revealed former Congressman Joe Garcia is the clear favorite against unpopular Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo, in the race for Florida’s 26th Congressional seat.
The poll shows Garcia leads Curbelo 47-46 among likely voters in the initial ballot, but after voters hear positive and negative messaging on both candidates Garcia’s lead grows heavily – going from 47-46 to a 48-40 margin in favor of Joe Garcia.
With the election less than six weeks away, this poll is good news for the Garcia campaign, who has a huge grassroots ground game that has been active for months – knocking on more than 30,000 doors and making 100,000 phone calls.
Garcia is riding a wave of momentum that includes a new Congressional district that now favors Democrats, a recent grassroots primary election victory against an opponent who outspent him 4-to-1, the recent addition of Joe Garcia’s name to the DCCC’s Red to Blue list, and a recent $1.2 million ad buy hitting Curbelo on his poor record on the environment and immigration. All serving as more evidence that local, statewide and national Democrats are pouring resources into Garcia’s campaign to unseat the unpopular Carlos Curbelo.
“This community supports Joe Garcia because he is a proven champion for South Florida families,” said Javier Hernandez, spokesperson for the Joe Garcia campaign. “The people of this district are with Joe because they know he fought for them in Washington on all the important issues facing our community. Voters have a clear choice between someone who’s worked to make college more affordable, improve Obamacare and pass immigration reform, against someone like Curbelo who votes to defund planned parenthood, repeal Obamacare and opposes equal pay for equal work and a livable minimum wage.”
The poll shows that Curbelo is not popular with likely voters in Florida’s 26th district with the majority of voters, by a nearly 2 to 1 margin, indicating he is doing a poor to fair job in Washington. The poll also shows Curbelo’s support in a head-to head drops heavily once likely voters learn more about him.
In Congress, Garcia delivered for his district. He successfully cut student loan rates for our students, which have since dropped to their lowest point in 10 years. Joe was also an advocate for clean water and the environment, having secured $200 million for everglades restoration and an additional $2 million in funding for water quality improvements. He was also successful in securing federal dollars for job training in South Florida and for local transportation projects.
Meanwhile, Curbelo went to Washington to do exactly what he campaigned on in 2014: to vote with extreme members of his party. Then lobbyist Curbelo supported Paul Ryan’s budget which would have privatize social security and turned Medicare into a voucher system. He was also recorded in a secret meeting echoing Donald Trump by calling both programs Ponzi schemes. Curbelo voted to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood. He voted to eliminate $84 billion in Pell Grants for low-to-medium-income college students. Curbelo has also been a staunch opponent of a minimum wage increase and has voted to block consideration of equal pay for equal work legislation on the House floor.
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