Luna fends off political attacks to win re-election in the 13th District

TAMPA – Anna Paulina Luna fended off political attacks and a last-minute fundraising flurry from her Democratic challenger to win a second term in Congress late Tuesday, defeating Whitney Fox, who had hoped to flip the Republican-leaning seat for democrats.

Luna defeated Fox 55 percent to 45 percent to win re-election in Florida’s 13th U.S. Congressional District, which covers most of Pinellas County.

Fox campaigned hard against Luna, and last quarter wiped out Luna’s lead in campaign funds. The Democratic Congressional Committee has targeted the district for its “Red to Blue” program — seeing Luna as one of the few vulnerable Republicans in the House.

Luna won the seat in 2022, defeating Democrat Eric Lynn, 53 percent to 45 percent. In 2020, she ran an unsuccessful campaign against incumbent Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor of Florida who served in the House as a Democrat. According to her biography, she is the first Mexican-American to represent Florida in the US House.

On the issues, Luna is an outspoken critic of abortion and a strong supporter of gun rights. She is a consistent voice against additional funding for Ukraine, voting against $60 billion in military aid to the country through 2034. She co-sponsored the “Ukraine Fatigue Resolution,” which calls for a freeze on U.S. aid to Ukraine.

In September, Luna was among 82 Republicans who voted against a stop-gap bill to fund the federal government through Dec. 20. The bill eventually passed, averting a government shutdown. While the bill funds the entire government, it included $20 billion in disaster relief funds for FEMA. That opened the door to political attacks claiming Luna voted “against FEMA funding.” Luna asked Congress to address FEMA funds as a separate matter. In October, she co-sponsored a bipartisan bill to allocate an additional $15 billion in FEMA disaster relief funds.

According to the biography on the official website of the House, Luna was born in California to a single mother in 1989. After graduating from high school in Los Angeles, Luna joined the Air Force, where he began to study for college. She graduated from the University of West Florida in 2017 with a degree in biology.

District 13 covers most of Pinellas County, including Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Tarpon Springs, Seminole, East Lake, Oldsmar, Gulfport and a small portion of St. Petersburg. According to the state Division of Elections, the district had 205,211 registered Republicans and 150,684 registered Democrats as of July 22, 2024.

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