Darren Soto isn’t a fiery orator. Instead, to build his successful political career, the five-term Democratic congressman from Kissimmee has always relied on diligent constituent work and bringing federal dollars home to his district.
Soto, 48, is now fighting for his political life as he seeks re-election this November in Florida’s newly redrawn 9th Congressional district, which now contains Indian River County. If he wins, he will replace Rep. Michael Haridopolos (R) of Indian Harbour Beach as Vero’s representative.
Haridopolos’ 8th Congressional district was also redrawn.
When Soto was first elected to Congress a decade ago, his district was solidly Democratic, made up mostly of “blue” strongholds in Orlando and Kissimmee. The partisan redistricting just pushed through by Gov. Ron DeSantis cut away swaths of that blue territory and added the reliably “red” Republican areas of Indian River County and rural parts of Okeechobee and Polk counties.
Republicans redrew the district map in hopes of increasing the already solid GOP majority in the state’s congressional delegation from 20-8 to 24-4 to try and help the party hold onto its slim majority in the U.S House of Representatives. In the process, Soto became a prime target.
“I know I have a big target on my back,” Soto said in an interview during a recent Vero Beach campaign appearance, “but I like a challenge. This new district has now become the fourth most competitive district in the whole country.”
If Soto wins, it will become the first time Vero was represented in Congress by a Democrat in more than 30 years.
Soto knows he is unlikely to win a majority of the votes in Vero Beach or Indian River County, where Republicans hold a 62,000-to-26,000 edge over Democrats in the number of registered voters.
But every vote counts, and Soto told an enthusiastic crowd of about 80 supporters during another recent campaign stop in Vero Beach that he believes he has a good chance of winning if he can get at least 40 percent of the vote here – a challenge that has previously eluded Democratic candidates.
Soto hopes to achieve that by convincing most of the independents to vote for him, plus wavering Republicans turned off by Donald Trump. Also key to his strategy is a strong ground game intended to turn out every possible Democratic vote.
Up until this year’s redistricting the respected Cook Political Report rated Soto’s 9th District as solidly Democratic. Now, though, Cook classifies the redrawn district as likely Republican, with the GOP candidate having an 8-point advantage. However, it also notes that Soto is an established incumbent and that a blue wave in the midterm election could carry him to a sixth term in the new 9th District.
“With Soto running for reelection, Democrats have an outside shot at holding this seat – the congressman outran Kamala Harris by 9 points in 2024 – but it’ll be an uphill battle,” Cook reports.
Soto cautions his audiences not to count on a blue wave and instead work hard for him, canvassing and doing all the blocking-and-tackling work necessary to win local elections.
“We can’t count on a blue wave,” Soto said. “We need to have a strong ground game. In a close election like this one, that can be worth 3 or 4 percentage points.”
To win, Soto knows he will need to win the independent vote. Some of his campaign ads now airing on local television don’t even mention that he is a Democrat. Instead, they stress what Soto sees as the three big issues in the campaign – the high cost of living, the loss of healthcare coverage by many Floridians, and what he calls the “exhausting” number of corruption scandals in the Trump administration, which he says require a “re-balancing” in Washington.
Some 450,000 Florida residents have lost healthcare coverage this year, after Congress let COVID-19 Obamacare subsidies expire, according to Fortune Magazine. That is more than in any other state.
Soto admits that as recently as a year ago, he “didn’t have the foggiest idea” that he would ever represent Indian River County, but even when Vero was not in his district, he helped secure funds from the U.S. Interior Department to clean up the Indian River Lagoon and alleviate a manatee die-off.
He said one of his strengths as lawmaker has always been knowing how to bring federal funds to the district he represents, notably billions of dollars in road improvement projects in the I-4 corridor in Orlando.
On immigration, Soto says that recent actions by the Trump administration to strip away the work permits of people with temporary protective status mean that 1 million legal Florida workers now face deportation. He believes this will harm many sectors of the Florida economy, including agriculture, construction, hospitality and healthcare, and will further drive up the cost of living, due to a scarcity of labor.
Soto has so far deftly sidestepped the competition within the Democratic party between moderates and leftist Democratic Socialists.
Asked if he would refuse to accept any more campaign contributions from pro-Israel political action committees because of what a questioner called Israel’s “genocide” of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Soto said he cannot “unilaterally disarm” and needs every dollar he can get to build a war chest of at least $5 million. Soto says he already has about $3 million in the bank and is confident of achieving his $5 million goal before the Nov. 3 election.
Soto also said that he has excellent relations with both Jewish leaders in the district and the sizable Arab community centered around his hometown of Kissimmee.
Soto was born in Ringwood, N.J., to a Puerto Rican father, Lou, and an Italian-American mother, Jean, and is fluent in English and Spanish. He was married in 2013 to Amanda, but the couple divorced in 2024. Earlier this year, Soto married again, tying the knot with Sheyla Asencios.
The congressman obtained his undergraduate degree from Rutgers, New Jersey’s state university, and a law degree from George Washington University in the District of Columbia. He moved to Florida in 2002 and launched a career in commercial law in the Orlando area.
Soto lost his first political race for the Florida state house in 2006 when he failed to unseat Republican incumbent Andy Gardiner in the 40th legislative district.
But he has been victorious in every race since, usually by substantial margins. The year after his defeat, Soto won a crowded Democratic primary and went on to beat Republican Anthony Suarez in the 49th Florida House district with 52 percent of the vote. He was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2008 and 2010. In 2012, he ran for the Florida state Senate in a newly created district and beat Republican nominee Will McBride with over 70 percent of the vote.
Soto moved up from state to federal politics in 2016, winning election to Congress with a 57 percent to 43 percent margin over Republican Wayne Liebnitzky. He beat the same Republican in a rematch two years later by an even greater margin, 58-42. In the last midterm elections, beat another Republican challenger, Scotty Moore, with 54 percent of the vote. He won re-election again in 2024, defeating Thomas Chalifoux with 55 percent of the vote.
Chalifoux was one of the Republicans running in this year’s primary, seeking a rematch against Soto with a the newly redrawn map favorable to Republicans. But Chalifoux finished third in a crowded seven-man Republican field. Dan Green, a Vero Beach resident and former Pentagon official during Trump’s first term, finished first with 25 percent of the Republican primary vote, beating out rancher and farmer Ben Butler by 1 percentage point and becoming Soto’s official GOP challenger.
One of the more remarkable aspects of Soto’s resume is that apart from being a successful politician and attorney, he is also a highly accomplished musician. He is a singer, songwriter and guitarist in the Orlando folk rock band Orange Creek Riders, which performs at music festivals and political events.
His favorite performers include Jimmy Buffett, Bob Marley and Tom Petty, and Petty’s popular song, “I Won’t Back Down,” sums up Soto’s attitude after the Republicans targeted him for defeat in the November election.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
