News From Miami-Dade

According to a new poll by the New York Times, Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is closing in on Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo in the contest for Florida’s 26th Congressional District, which FiveThirtyEight rates as a toss-up. The Miami Herald reports:

• “A new poll suggests Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo has a race on his hands.”

• “After four days of thousands of calls, Curbelo emerged with a three percentage point lead over Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a result that is within the poll’s five-point margin of error.”

• “The poll, conducted via phone from September 13 to 17, called 509 voters in Curbelo’s Miami-to-Key West district which he has represented since 2015. Curbelo finished with 47 percent support and Mucarsel-Powell picked up 44 percent of support with nine percent of voters being undecided.”

• “The poll comes a month after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released polling that showed Mucarsel-Powell trailing Curbelo by a larger margin than a poll conducted months earlier, suggesting that the Democrat who ran for state Senate had work to do to make the race more competitive.”

• “‘This race has tightened considerably. The more voters get to know Debbie, the more the wind is at her back,’ said Melvin Felix, a spokesperson for the Mucarsel-Powell campaign.”