Anti-corruption lawyer drops bid against Diaz-Balart, pivots to race for HD 120
Citing a desire to make “the biggest impact possible,” Adam Gentle, a 39-year-old lawyer vying to replace U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart in Congress, announced Tuesday he is dropping his bid for FL-25.
Gentle, who was running as a Democrat, said he is now running for Florida House District 120, a state district that includes parts of South Miami-Dade and all of the Florida Keys. The seat is currently held by Republican James “Jim” Mooney, 69, who won in the 2020 general election after a contentious and close GOP primary in which he was accused of being a “communist sympathizer” by an opponent.
Gentle did not speak to the Herald about his decision to suspend his campaign for a majority-Hispanic district that Diaz-Balart won in 2018 with 60% of the vote. No opponents qualified to challenge him in 2020.
In a statement, Gentle explained he decided to run for state office instead to root out corruption and defend democracy in Florida’s state government.
“I got into the congressional race to listen, tell the truth, and uphold the Constitution, but the biggest offenders of this aren’t in Washington, they’re 500 miles away in Tallahassee, where lawmakers preempt home rule, roll back voting rights, and egregiously participate in pay to play politics,” Gentle said in a statement.
He specifically criticized the initiative led by Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee to overturn a referendum approved by a majority of voters in Key West that limited the number of cruise ship passengers who could disembark on a daily basis and banned bigger ships from docking.
“Jim Mooney has failed to effectively fight for our interests, casually tossed out our constitutional right to make local decisions, folded as his colleagues disregarded our vote, and worked to make it harder to vote,” he said. “I believe we can and must do better.”
Mooney, a Keys native and former Islamorada councilman, initially voted against the proposal that ultimately became law and said at the time that he was opposed to the proposal to prohibit local ballot initiatives that restrict maritime commerce because of environmental impact of cruise ships.
Mooney said that he also supported Key West’s vote in the cruise referendum because of his local government background, but that he recognizes he didn’t sway most of his Republican colleagues.
“I fought very hard for the City of Key West in the referendum,” said Mooney. “I’m very confident in what I have accomplished.”
Gentle lived in downtown Miami last year, but in a statement on Tuesday, he said he moved into the district last August, to Big Coppitt Key, with his husband, Matheus, and their dog, Oliver.
“I have been spending time in the Keys since I was 12 years old and it has always been a dream of mine to make it my home. In the past few months, I had the opportunity to make that dream a reality and since August it has been my primary residence,” he said.
According to Florida’s Constitution, lawmakers must be a resident in the district they are representing by Election Day or when they are sworn into office.
Republican candidate Robert Allen has also filed to run against Mooney.
Gentle’s announcement means the Democratic field for HD 120 will now expand to a two-candidate primary. Daniel Horton-Diaz, also a lawyer, announced Monday he would file the paperwork to run for the seat, which he ran for in 2016 but lost in the general election.
Horton-Diaz worked as a legislative aide for Florida Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Florida state director for the voting rights organization All Voting is Local, and served as a congressional district chief of staff for former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. In 2020, he ran against former Democratic incumbent Sen. Javier Fernández in Senate District 39, a competitive Miami-Dade seat that Fernández ultimately lost to his Republican opponent, Sen. Ana Maria Rodríguez.
In a statement, Horton-Diaz also alluded to preemption efforts from Tallahassee.
“The people of this district deserve a representative who will work for them and champion their interests in our state government. We must address the desperate need for affordable housing throughout the district, work together to fight sea level rise and the climate crisis, reduce traffic and excessive tolls, and ensure that local communities are able to govern themselves without interference from Tallahassee,” he said.
While Mucarsel-Powell said she was not officially endorsing anyone in the primary, she said in a statement that she was happy to see Gentle running for the seat and that it was clear he cared deeply about the community.
“I’m thrilled to see Adam getting into this race,” Mucarsel-Powell said. “It is important that our community has representation in Tallahassee who will put partisanship aside and work to protect our environment and preserve the principle of home rule not just in the Keys but across our state.”
This story has been updated to include comments from state Rep. Jim Mooney.
Miami Herald staff writer Samantha J. Gross contributed to this story.
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 11:49 AM.
