Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R) Elected 1992, 7th term
Born:	Aug. 13, 1954, Havana, Cuba
Home:	Miami
Education:	U. of S. FL, B.S. 1977, Case Western Reserve U., J.D. 1979
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Cristina)
Elected  Office:	FL House of Reps., 1986-89; FL Senate 1989-92.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1979-92; Asst. FL Atty., 1983-84.
DC Office	2244 RHOB20515, 202-225-4211; Fax: 202-225-8576; Web site: www.house.gov/diaz-balart
State Offices	Miami, 305-470-8555.
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Miami's Cuban-American community has been one of America's most dynamic over the last 40 years, growing from 50,000 in 1960, the year after Fidel Castro took over Cuba, to well over 1 million today. Over those years, the Cuban-American neighborhoods centered along 8th Street--Calle Ocho--expanded to the southwest, west and northwest. In the 1980s, development reached outward to the Homestead extension of Florida's Turnpike. In the 1990s, Cuban-Americans moved out and beyond Hialeah, whose now-closed racetrack was constructed in the 1920s beyond the edge of urban development; Hialeah's 90% Hispanic population is the highest in the Miami area. The suburbs of Miami have spread through former swampland, with planned communities and subdivisions leading to streets that fan out around lakes and golf courses.

The 21st Congressional District of Florida is an irregular rectangle about 20 miles long and two to six miles wide on the western side of settled territory in Miami-Dade County and southern Broward County. In Miami-Dade it includes Kendall and Cutler, southwest of Miami, and Westwood Lakes and Sweetwater, directly to the west. It includes low-income Hialeah and nearby Miami Lakes, developed in the 1960s by future Senator Bob Graham and his brothers. In Broward County the 21st District includes much of Miramar and Pembroke Pines. It includes such landmarks as Florida International University and Miami International Airport which, with new concourses, ranks third in the nation for overseas travel. The population of the district is 70% Hispanic, the highest of any Florida district, but only 58% of these are of Cuban origin. Cuban voters continue to be very heavily Republican; other Latino voters are less so, but by no means overwhelmingly Democratic. Many here do not vote at all: The 21st has the lowest number of registered voters of any Florida district. There are relatively few Hispanics in the Broward County portion of the district, which tends to vote Democratic. Overall, this is a Republican district, but one that sometimes votes for Democrats who support the Cuban community. In 2004, some Cuban-Americans--typically, the more recent arrivals--were unhappy with the Bush administration's tightened restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba, but others supported any steps that kept dollars from Castro. As a result the Bush percentage declined from 58% in 2000 to 57% in 2004.

The congressman from the 21st District is Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican first elected when the district was created in 1992. Diaz-Balart was born in Cuba where his grandfather, father and uncle served in the Cuban Congress; the family left Cuba in 1959, shortly after Castro took over and after their house was looted and burned while they were vacationing in Paris. His aunt was the former wife of Fidel Castro and the mother of Castro's only recognized child. Diaz-Balart started off as a poverty lawyer and a Democrat, but switched parties. He was elected to the state House as a Republican in 1986 and to the state Senate in 1989, a year after his younger brother Mario was elected to the state House. (Unlike Mario, who is now the congressman from the 25th District, Lincoln Diaz-Balart was not born in the United States and is ineligible to be President.) The Diaz-Balarts are sometimes called the "Cuban Kennedys": one other brother is a TV anchorman on Telemundo and another is an investment banker. In 1989 Jorge Mas Canosa's Cuban American National Foundation convinced Diaz-Balart not to run against Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the special election to replace Claude Pepper. In 1992 the organization endorsed him in the 21st. State Senator Javier Souto, also Cuban-born, opposed him in the primary, charging that Diaz-Balart was backed by wealthy contributors and was not a lifelong Republican. Diaz-Balart won 69%-31%.

Diaz-Balart has a voting record that is rather liberal on economics, veering far from market principles on issues from the minimum wage to NAFTA, though he has said he believes a hemispheric common market is inevitable. He was one of three Republican incumbents who refused to sign the Contract with America in 1994, and he voted against the Republican welfare bills because of their provisions denying benefits to legal immigrants. Many older Cubans who have not taken U.S. citizenship because they hoped some day to return to Cuba are dependent on Supplemental Security Income and other aid. He persevered, and his bill to restore SSI benefits to legal immigrants passed.

Diaz-Balart, who shares a birthday with Castro, hopes that he will return some day to his freed homeland (Castro refers to the Diaz-Balarts as "his most repulsive enemies" and "miserable Judases"). Naturally he has favored sanctions against Cuba, and when the Clinton administration announced in 1995 that it would no longer give automatic safe haven to Cuban refugees and instead would return them to Cuba, Diaz-Balart was arrested while protesting this switch. He wrote the section of the Helms-Burton Act codifying the embargo against Cuba. During the Elian Gonzalez controversy, Diaz-Balart closely advised the Miami family--he gave the six-year-old a black Labrador puppy--and he was a prominent spokesman for the local community. Although farm state Republicans, working with Democrats, have gotten the House to pass bills relaxing the trade embargo on Cuba, Diaz-Balart has worked to assure the Bush administration's unyielding opposition to significant trade openings to Cuba. With other Cuban-Americans and their allies, he created the House's Cuba Democracy Group, as a counterpoint to the trade-opening Cuba Working Group. As chairman of the Rules Subcommittee on Homeland Security, he worked with Speaker Dennis Hastert to make the full committee permanent. He is vice-chairman and next in line to chair the Rules Committee, but the chairman is selected by the Speaker and some Republicans contend that Diaz-Balart is too independent for the post. He calls Democrat Claude Pepper, who chaired Rules in the 1980s, a "role model."

Diaz-Balart has had no problem winning reelection. He has not faced a Democratic opponent since 1998. In 2004, he won 73%-27% against a Libertarian candidate.

Committees

• Rules (2d of 9 R): Legislative & Budget Process (Chmn.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	10	11	0	9	90	57	84	83	77	90	--
2003	10	--	0	15	--	58	90	75	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	33%	--	64%		38%	--	62%
Social	30%	--	70%		47%	--	53%
Foreign	11%	--	80%		38%	--	62%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning *		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage * 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R)	146,507	73%	$451,555
	Frank Gonzalez (Lib)	54,736	27%	$12,719
2004 primary	Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R)	unopposed
2002 general	Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R)	unopposed
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (100%); 1998 (75%); 1996 (100%); 1994 (100%); 1992 (100%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 127,326 (57%) Kerry (D) 96,232 (43%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 104,888 (58%) Gore (D) 76,322 (42%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Twenty-First District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R + 6
• District Size: 140 square miles
• Population in 2000: 639,295; 99.9% urban; 0.1% rural
• Median Household Income: $41,426; 13.0% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 22.6% blue collar; 63.6% white collar; 13.9% gray collar; 4.8% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 21.0% White, 6.5% Black, 1.8% Asian, 0.1% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.8% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 69.7% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 3.2% USA, 2.6% German, 2.6% West Indian
• Click here for statewide demographic data.