Florida Race Puts $50 Million Behind TV Politics

Florida’s newly drawn 25th Congressional District has drawn tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending, with Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz saying $50 million had already gone to television advertising. The forum in Miami Beach put two candidates before voters one week before Election Day, as more than 1.6 million Floridians had already cast ballots. The contest is being staged through a familiar apparatus: candidates, campaign spending and a district reshaped by redistricting.

The Campaign Runs on Money and Screens

Republican challenger Scott Singer again called for a televised debate during the campaign’s final days. Moskowitz argued voters had already seen enough through advertising and media interviews. “People have seen a lot of TV. There's been $50 million spent on television. So there's been plenty of television,” he said. The candidates were at their second forum in the past week, while the district’s campaign spending ran into tens of millions of dollars.

The district stretches from Palm Beach County to Miami Beach and was widely viewed as more favorable to Republicans after redistricting. That map matters: voters are choosing between candidates in a district whose boundaries were newly drawn, while campaigns spend heavily to shape what voters see and hear. The forum’s central political stage was not a neighborhood assembly or a community-run process, but a contest between two candidates seeking congressional office.

Promises Through the Existing Political Channel

Israel, social programs and the economy were among the subjects discussed. Singer said he believed his support reached beyond Republican voters, arguing that Democrats were “tired of the socialism and anti-Israelism that has seeped into today's Democratic Party.” Moskowitz cited his legislative record in Congress as evidence of his support for Israel. The exchange made the candidates’ competing claims part of the campaign’s pitch to voters.

On affordability, Moskowitz said he would continue advocating for the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and SNAP benefits if reelected. Singer said inflation needed to be addressed through fiscal discipline and clarified earlier comments about food prices by saying inflation rates were declining. “Obviously we'd like to see prices come down; some items have come down. Government can do two things: lower taxes, and cut spending,” Singer said. He added that “reckless inflationary spending” by both parties in Congress over decades had helped fuel inflation.

Those proposals were presented as choices for voters within the congressional contest: Moskowitz’s stated support for existing programs, and Singer’s call for lower taxes and spending cuts. The forum did not describe a community-led alternative to those electoral routes. The candidates made their cases from the stage; voters faced the ballot box.

Threats, Voting and the Forum Stage

CBS News Miami moderator Morgan Rynor asked Moskowitz about threats made against his life the previous week. Moskowitz said elected officials across the political spectrum were dealing with threats, and that Jewish elected officials were dealing with them even more because of rising antisemitism. “It's something a lot of elected officials are dealing with on a bipartisan basis,” he said.

A large crowd attended the forum as early voting continued across Florida. More than 1.6 million voters had already cast ballots ahead of Election Day, which followed the forum by seven days. The candidates’ arguments over advertising, district lines, public benefits and spending all unfolded inside that election framework, where campaign money and the boundaries of the district set the terms of the contest.