Palm Beach legislator and 'unapologetic progressive' joins race for Hastings' seat
Source: Miami Herald
West Palm Beach state Rep. Omari Hardy announced Wednesday he plans to run for Alcee Hastings’ former congressional seat after his death on April 6, and the 31-year-old first-year lawmaker said he will run a left-leaning campaign.
Hardy, the fifth politician currently in office to announce a run for Florida’s 20th Congressional District, represents most of West Palm Beach. His political career began in 2017 after he defeated an incumbent on the Lake Worth Beach City Commission, and he won his state House seat in 2020 after defeating former state Rep. Al Jacquet by 17 percentage points in a heated Democratic primary.
He’ll now run for a seat that Hastings occupied since it was created in 1992.
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Hardy said if he’s elected, he’ll push for the Green New Deal, affordable housing, Medicare for All and a basic income for working class Americans. He repeatedly compared himself to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a high-profile left-leaning lawmaker who defeated a member of House Democratic leadership in 2018, and Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, a Black Lives Matter activist who defeated an incumbent Democrat in 2020.
Read more: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article250999669.html
