Aaron Bean secures Republican nod in race for Florida’s 4th Congressional District
Aaron Bean emerged as the winner in the Republican primary for Florida’s 4th Congressional District Tuesday.
Without an incumbent holding the seat, the race has been a wide-open battle featuring a three-way race between Bean, history professor Erick Aguilar, and insurance contract compliance employee Jon Chuba. Bean is favored to win the general, as the district is widely seen as carrying a partisan advantage for the GOP.
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Bean, who was regarded as the front-runner, has called on Congress to curtail inflation by reining in federal spending and ramping up energy production. He managed to outraise his top opponents and enjoyed support from two different super PACs during the race.
Aguilar focused much of his campaign on election integrity concerns and achieving the big-ticket MAGA items such as constructing a wall on the southern border and putting “America first” in the international arena. He took flak from political observers for switching his party registration twice during the past decade.
Chuba has trumpeted the fact that he is “not a politician” and has campaigned on the typical conservative causes such as low taxes, securing the border, and opposition to abortion.
Meanwhile, the Democratic side has been home to a two-way clash between Tony Hill and LaShonda Holloway.
Hill is a veteran and former state senator who sought to make a political comeback in the newly crafted district despite its Republican-leaning contours. Throughout his campaign, Hill ran on bolstering Jacksonville’s port to help combat inflationary pressures, expanding universal pre-K, and easing the burden of student loan debt on young people.
Holloway vied for Congress unsuccessfully in 2020 and has worked as a civil mediator and healthcare advocate. In that election, she challenged incumbent Rep. Al Lawson (D-FL) for his 5th Congressional District seat but was bested by double digits.
Florida’s 4th Congressional District had been retooled to dilute the minority voting power in the 5th Congressional District, in keeping with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s demands. The governor had vetoed a map that largely preserved the 5th Congressional District, arguing it was a racially gerrymandered district in violation of the equal protection clause in the Constitution. The GOP-led state legislature caved to DeSantis’s demands and crafted a map that adhered to his liking. The map is being challenged in court.
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The 4th Congressional District sprawls from Gadsden County to central Duval County and has a 15-point Republican advantage, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL), who represents the 4th District, opted to pursue election in the 5th, which now touts a Republican partisan advantage.
