No sooner than Florida’s former Deputy Solicitor General Oz Vazquez (D) announced his intentions to challenge Rep. Brian Mast (R), did the Mast reelection team start fundraising against him, calling his candidacy something right out of “Nancy Pelosi’s playbook.” And labeling him a “DC liberal attorney.”
“He’s a DC liberal lawyer who moved to the district this summer and has rebranded himself as a ‘Port St. Lucie Democrat,” stated the Mast fundraising letter.’
Mast’s rhetoric sounds like the typical ‘Democrats are socialist’ narrative, but in looking at Vazquez congressional campaign office, there could be some merit in what Mast stated.
Vazquez’s campaign biography reads like a liberal community organizing attorney’s resume.
“My first job after college was with AmeriCorpsVISTA, helping low-income communities build affordable housing and develop small businesses in rural North Carolina. After graduating from Harvard Law School, I represented unions and workers, defending their chance work with dignity. I fought for food service workers, police officers, and for pensioners who were scammed out of their savings by Bernie Madoff. I served the People of Florida, working with both Democrats and Republicans to practice constitutional law in the Attorney General’s office. I’ve spent my career advocating for working people, now I’m stepping up to do that in Congress. (website)
Vazquez says he “grew up” in the Port St. Lucie area, but Mast says that he only move to Port St. Lucie this past summer, referring to him as just “another progressive swamp creature like Nancy Pelosi.”
During the 2016 presidential election, Mast moved from Parkland, Florida to Fort Pierce in order to run for his current congressional seat.
While Vazquez seems like a viable Democratic opponent to Mast, it remains to be seen if he will be able to raise the millions of dollars needed to mount an effective and winning congressional campaign.
Oh, this is the first time in this race that two Hispanics face-off against one another.
Yeah, Brian Mast is of Mexican descent.
