Mario Rafael Díaz-Balart Caballero (born September 25, 1961) is a Republican U.S. Representative for Florida's 25th congressional district. Elected in 2002, his current district includes much of southwestern Miami-Dade County, including the city of Hialeah, and much of the northern portion of the Everglades.
Video Mario Díaz-Balart
Early life, education, and early political career
Díaz-Balart was born in 1961 in Fort Lauderdale, to Cuban parents, the late Cuban politician Rafael Díaz-Balart, and his wife, Hilda Caballero Brunet. His aunt, Mirta Díaz-Balart, was the first wife of Fidel Castro. Her son, and his cousin, was Fidel Ángel "Fidelito" Castro Díaz-Balart. His uncle is the Cuban-Spanish painter, Waldo Díaz-Balart. His brother, Lincoln Díaz-Balart, represented Florida's 21st District from 1993 to 2011. He has two other brothers, José Díaz-Balart, a journalist, and Rafael Díaz-Balart, a banker.
He attended the University of South Florida to study political science before beginning his public service career as an aide to then-Miami Mayor Xavier Suárez in 1985. In the same year, he changed his political party affiliation from Democratic to Republican.
Maps Mario Díaz-Balart
Florida legislature
He was elected to the Florida House in 1988 and moved to the Florida Senate in 1992. He returned to the Florida House in 2000. During his second tenure in the House, he chaired the redistricting committee.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
- 2002-2006
Díaz-Balart gave up his seat in the state house to run in the newly created 25th District, which included most of western Miami-Dade County, part of Collier County and the mainland portion of Monroe County. It was widely believed that he had drawn this district for himself, given that he was chairman of the state house redistricting committee. He easily won the seat with 64 percent of the vote. He was unopposed for reelection in 2004, and won a third term with 58 percent of the vote in 2006.
- 2008
In 2008, Díaz-Balart faced his strongest challenge to date in Joe García, former Executive Director of the Cuban American National Foundation and former chairman of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party. Despite the perception that Díaz-Balart had drawn the district for himself, it was actually fairly marginal on paper, with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+4. Ultimately, Díaz-Balart defeated Garcia with 53 percent of the vote.
- 2010
On February 11, 2010, Díaz-Balart announced his intention to seek election in Florida's 21st congressional district--being vacated by his brother, Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart--rather than the 25th district. Unlike the 25th, the 21st has long been considered the most Republican district in the Miami area. No other party even put up a candidate when filing closed on April 30, handing the seat to Díaz-Balart.
- 2012
Díaz-Balart was reelected unopposed in 2012 in the renumbered 25th district. Indeed, since this district's creation in 1993 (it was numbered as the 21st from 1993 to 2013), the Republican candidate has run unopposed in all but two elections.
Committee assignments
- Committee on Appropriations
- Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government (Vice Chair)
- Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
- Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Caucus membership
- Assistant Whip
- Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Conference
- Founder of the Protecting Families Online Initiative
- Founding member of the Washington Waste Watchers
- Member of the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus
- Republican Main Street Partnership
- House Baltic Caucus
Political positions
As of January 2018, Díaz-Balart had voted with his party in 92.4% of votes so far in the 115th United States Congress and voted in line with President Trump's position in 93.1% of votes.
He is a founding member of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, a caucus of Hispanic Republican congressmen.
Vote Smart issue positions
Vote Smart, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States, "researched presidential and congressional candidates' public records to determine candidates' likely responses on certain key issues." According to Vote Smart's 2016 analysis, Díaz-Balart generally supports pro-life legislation, opposes an income tax increase, opposes mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders, opposes federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth, supports lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth, opposes requiring states to adopt federal education standards, supports building the Keystone Pipeline, supports government funding for the development of renewable energy, opposes the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, opposes gun-control legislation, supports repealing the Affordable Care Act, opposes requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship, opposes same-sex marriage, and supports allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts.
Environment
Regarding climate change, in 2007 he said "I know there's a lot of money to be made on the bandwagon of global warming, you can make movies, documentaries, get a lot of research money -- and that's okay, I love capitalism...My fear is using the bandwagon of global warming to have Congress act on some knee-jerk reaction which will please some editorialists, will hurt our economy, will not do anything to help us in the future."
As of January 2018, Díaz-Balart was not a member of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, who work to achieve action addressing the risks from climate change. Members currently include Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo (co-chair), Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch (co-chair), Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican Rep. Brian Mast, Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy, and Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Health care
On May 4, 2017, Díaz-Balart voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and pass the American Health Care Act.
Donald Trump
In February 2017, he voted against a resolution that would have directed the House to request 10 years of Trump's tax returns, which would then have been reviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee in a closed session.
Díaz-Balart supported Donald Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, saying "It is clear that Director Comey had lost the confidence of the Deputy Attorney General, Attorney General, and the President. Unfortunately, he became a controversial and divisive figure."
In January 2018, after it was reported that Trump had voiced his opposition to immigration from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries - which he reportedly referred to as "shithole countries" - in a meeting on immigration reform, Diaz-Balart who attended the meeting refused to confirm or deny whether the incident took place.
Economic issues
On September 29, 2008, Díaz-Balart voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which was intended to purchase distressed assets and supply cash directly to banks during the global financial crisis of 2008.
Díaz-Balart voted to promote free trade with Peru, against assisting workers who lose jobs due to globalization, for the Central America Free Trade Agreement, for the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement, for the US-Singapore free trade agreement, and for free trade with Chile. He was rated 75% by the National Foreign Trade Council, indicating support for trade engagement.
Tax reform
Díaz-Balart voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. An estimated 41,000 of his constituents are expected to lose their health insurance as a result of the bill's passing.
Foreign policy
In 2007, Díaz-Balart advocated in favor of maintaining the Cuban embargo, saying "Some people do not understand the embargo of Cuba. Its purpose is to keep American hard currency out of the hands of a Communist thug by restricting most trade and travel."
Díaz-Balart has strongly supported the right of self-determination on the Falkland Islands, over which there is a sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom. On 18 April 2013 Diaz-Balart introduced a resolution to the United States House of Representatives calling on the United States Government to officially recognize the result of the 2013 Falkland Islands sovereignty referendum in which the Falkland Islanders overwhelmingly voted to remain a British Overseas Territory. Diaz-Balart introduced a similar resolution in 2017 recognizing the result of that year's general election in the Falklands.
Immigration and refugees
Díaz-Balart supported President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to impose a temporary ban on entry to the U.S. to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. He stated that "The ban is only temporary until the Administration can review and enact the necessary procedures to vet immigrants from these countries. The ban is based on countries the Obama administration identified as 'countries of concern' and not based on a religious test."
Gun Control
In the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018, in Parkland, Florida, Díaz-Balart said gun control legislation wouldn't stop mass shootings. As reported by the Tampa Bay Times: "Would gun control stop this? No," Diaz-Balart said. "I want to make sure we look at things that could make a difference." According to The Washington Post, Diaz-Balart, is single largest recipient of direct NRA campaign cash -- $26,450 -- among Floridians in the House of Representatives since 1998.
Drug policy
Díaz-Balart has a "D" rating from NORML for his voting history regarding cannabis-related causes.
Personal life
He currently lives in Miami with his wife Tia and son Cristian Rafael.
See also
- List of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States Congress
References
External links
- Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart official U.S. House site
- Mario Diaz-Balart campaign website
- Mario Díaz-Balart at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Mario Díaz-Balart at PolitiFact Florida
- Mario Díaz-Balart on IMDb
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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