The race for the seat being vacated by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s retirement has drawn a two-party crowd, but it's less by one now that Raquel Regalado has announced she is pulling herself out of contention.
Considered at one time a natural replacement for the stalwart Republican incumbent, Regalado, 43 and a mother of two, instead has extended the diminishing quality of her family’s once-formidable name in South Florida politics.
After announcing her intention to run more than five months ago, the former Miami-Dade School Board member had a difficult time finding traction in the crowded field. In a letter delivered to the Miami Herald the day before Thanksgiving, Regalado gave a list of reasons behind her decision to withdraw.
“The current political climate and the level of disrespect and disregard for the values that our nation is founded on is disheartening,” she wrote in her consolation.
Regalado, a first generation American, also noted a “circus-like atmosphere” within the federal government, and gave her refusal to compromise her values and beliefs. “I refuse to accept disrespect, intolerance and vulgarity as our new norm and I refuse to be part of this two-party pantomime,” she continued. While these words tend to indicate a profound disillusionment had occurred there may be a more fungible explanation to her decision as well.
With the Democrats eager to take over the 27th Congressional seat, they have a flush field, with numerous candidates drawing donor interest. Multiple Dems running have surpassed the six-figure plateau, as has GOP candidate Bruno Barreiro. Regalado, meanwhile, according to FEC filings has only been able to take in $15,000.
She explained that the gap came as a result of the impact of Hurricane Irma and her willingness to forego fundraising while voters were grappling with the effects of the storm.
But some Miamians claim the shortfall is due to a waning of the Regalado "glory days" -- what amounts to a growing disinterest in the old days and the old ways. Raquel's father, Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, who was born in Cuba and came to Miami at age 14, is retiring after eight years in office, and after decades in local politics. Raquel, meanwhile, lost last year’s bid for the Miami-Dade mayoral seat, and her brother Tommy failed to win a seat on the Miami City Commission.
Last year when she entered the race the Herald described it as "the prospect of yet another Miami 'Game of Thrones' in a city dominated by a handful of families. Like her father, who refused to vote for Donald Trump for president, the younger Regalado has a history of bucking her party: In 2010, she campaigned for Democrat Alex Sink for governor, over Republican Rick Scott."
Hurricanes and political platitudes aside, when the daughter of a vaunted political figure can only manage to draw single-digit donation percentages against the rest of the field, it sends a significant message that times are changing in Miami-Dade County.
Brad Slager is a Fort Lauderdale freelance writer who wrote this story exclusively for Sunshine State News. He writes on politics and the entertainment industry and his stories appear in such publications as RedState and The Federalist.
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