Democrat Janelle Perez quits U.S. House race to run for Florida Senate

In August, Democrat Janelle Perez said “her passion lies in the federal government” when announcing her run for Congress.

Now, after a campaign-launch event in Little Havana, a month of online fundraising pleas and referring to her run against Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar as “the most competitive race in the country,” Perez’s passions have changed.

Perez, who has never run for elected office, announced on Wednesday that she is abandoning her bid against Salazar. Instead, Perez is running for a Florida Senate seat that is held by Republican Ileana Garcia and was decided by 34 votes in 2020. That election now has GOP operative Frank Artiles charged with recruiting and paying a sham candidate to help Garcia win. Garcia is not accused of any wrongdoing.

“Of course, things have changed in the last month,” Perez said in an interview. “I did have experience in Capitol Hill and D.C., but the need to step up at the state level is now and that’s why I’ve decided to make this change.”

The switch was first reported by Florida Politics.

Salazar now has the field to herself in Florida’s 27th Congressional District, which includes Miami Beach, most of Miami and coastal areas of Miami-Dade County, though former U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala is considering a rematch in 2022. Democrats currently have zero candidates running against a first-term incumbent in a district that President Joe Biden won in 2020, though redistricting could lead to changes.

“Democrats were publicly fretting about their chances in South Florida, and things aren’t getting any better for them,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Camille Gallo said in a statement. “Democrats are going to have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find anyone who will support their socialist agenda in South Florida.”

Perez said last month that Salazar’s vote against the Equality Act, a bill that would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” to prompt a run for Congress. Now, she says the prospect of a Texas-style abortion law in Florida after it was validated by the U.S. Supreme Court led her to change course.

“I feel like that may have been the final straw,” Perez said, using the same metaphor she used when asked why Salazar needed to be defeated a month ago. “The need for Democrats to step up in local government became very, very clear.”

Garcia represents Florida’s 37th state Senate District in Tallahassee, a seat that overlaps with some of Salazar’s Congressional district. Garcia’s district includes Pinecrest, where Perez lives.

Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book endorsed Perez on Wednesday, calling her a candidate who is “intelligent, pragmatic and diverse.”

Perez is a former Republican who said she switched party affiliations “around 2014” when she moved back to Miami from Washington. But she has continued to financially support GOP candidates after becoming a Democrat, donating $2,000 to U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s 2016 campaign and $1,000 in 2017 to Republican state Rep. Daniel Perez, who is a close family friend.

State campaign-finance records show that Perez hasn’t donated directly to any Democratic candidates running for the Florida Legislature, though she began donating to Democrats in 2021. She donated $1,000 to a political-action committee run by Democratic consultant Christian Ulvert, gave $10,000 to the Florida Democratic Party, $500 to a PAC supporting Shalala and $500 to a PAC supporting Rhode Island Democratic Rep. David Cicilline from March to July. Perez is the co-owner of her family’s Medicare managed-care company.

Perez is transferring $300,000 in campaign contributions from her federal account amassed over the last month to a PAC titled Democracy and Freedom, which is supporting her Florida Senate bid.

Perez says she’s “100% committed” to the state Senate race.