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Representative Darren Soto's Argumentative Analysis

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The congressional behaviors of Representative Maxine Waters, a Democratic representative for the 43rd district of California, and that of Democratic Representative Darren Soto are both inspired by the goal of reelection. This common goal of reelection coined by David Mayhew is achieved differently by each representative depending on the demographics, political leaning, and incumbency of the district. When comparing the legislative behavior of Darren Soto, the representative of Florida’s newly drawn 9th congressional district, and that of Representative Maxine Waters from California’s 43rd Congressional district, this holding becomes evident. This paper will argue that while both Rep. Waters, and Rep. Soto are inspired by the common goal of …show more content…

In 2015, Florida underwent a redistricting process after the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the district map drawn by the Republican legislature was unconstitutional(MCI Maps). This new district drawing resulted in a shift in party politics within many districts towards either party, or in some cases newly balanced districts with seats open for either party. Along with these shifts, there also became a lack of established constituencies that Fenno argues are crucial for Members of Congress. While a winner of newly drawn district will have automatically have geographic and personal constituencies, they will have to work to gain reelection and primary constituencies. The way to do so is through having a strong homestyle that fits the needs of your district, along with direct impacts on Congress in order to be able to credit claim during time of reelections. Looking at the voting history the 9th district where representative Soto was elected, its clear that the encompassing areas are only slightly left leaning. Data shows that for the past three presidential elections the district has continually voted in favor of the Democratic presidential candidate with a margin of only 11.8%(Daily Kos Elections). Also, the district has only slightly leaned to the left compared to the nation resulting in its average PVI for the past three elections to be 3.7 in favor of Democrats: meaning that there is a presence of conservatism in the district. This split in ideology, demands that Rep. Soto has to appease not only his liberal constituents, but those who are conservative as well: seeing that he does not have a large margin for reelection. To tap into this base, Rep. Soto has to focus on bipartisan issues that bring both sides together in agreement. The easiest way to do so in the 9th district is to focus on agriculture. The 9th

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