U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the current dean of the Florida delegation and the first woman to ever lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced on Sunday that she was retiring from Congress.
Ros-Lehtinen broke the news to the Miami Herald that she would not run again in 2018.
“It's been such a delight and a high honor to serve our community for so many years and help constituents every day of the week,” she told the Miami Herald. “We just said, ‘It's time to take a new step.’”
First elected to Congress in a special election back in 1989, Ros-Lehtinen has often concentrated on international issues, ranking as one of Israel’s biggest defenders and the Castro regime’s fiercest critics on Capitol Hill. She currently chairs the House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee. While solidly conservative on other areas, including being pro-life, Ros-Lehtinen has gone left on several fronts, including opposing President Donald Trump’s and U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s, R-Wisc., efforts to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law and supporting same sex marriage. Ros-Lehtinen refused to endorse Trump in last year’ s presidential contest and criticized his leadership in her interview with the Miami Herald.
While she has been in Congress for almost three decades, Ros-Lehtinen was already under fire from the Democrats. For most of her political career, Ros-Lehtinen kept her seat with ease. In 2014, she won another term without any opposition in the general election. In 2012, she blew out her Democratic challenger by almost 25 percent. Only once this century did Ros-Lehtinen take less than 60 percent in a general election. Riding Barack Obama’s coattails, Annette Taddeo pulled 42 percent in 2008 but Ros-Lehtinen still pulled 58 percent.
But, after the latest round of congressional redistricting, 2016 offered a different story. Facing Democrat Scott Fuhrman, something of a political unknown when he entered the race, Ros-Lehtinen won by a far less impressive margin. She won with 54.9 percent while Fuhrman claimed 45.1 percent, a closer margin than she has seen in decades. Republican Donald Trump struggled in this South Florida district back in November, taking 39 percent while Democrat Hillary Clinton pulled 58.6 percent here.
A crowd of Democrats was already lining up to run against Ros-Lehtinen including Fuhrman, educator Michael Hepburn and Miami Beach City Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez. That field should expand now that Ros-Lehtinen is headed to the sidelines.
