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Mario Díaz-Balart | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2017 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromFlorida | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Lincoln Diaz-Balart |
| Constituency | 21st district (2011–2013) 25th district (2013–2023) 26th district (2023–present) |
| In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | David Rivera |
| Constituency | 25th district |
| Member of theFlorida House of Representatives | |
| In office November 7, 2000 – November 5, 2002 | |
| Preceded by | J. Alex Villalobos |
| Succeeded by | Redistricted |
| Constituency | 112th district |
| In office November 8, 1988 – November 3, 1992 | |
| Preceded by | Javier Souto |
| Succeeded by | Redistricted |
| Constituency | 115th district |
| Member of theFlorida Senate from the 37th district | |
| In office November 3, 1992 – November 7, 2000 | |
| Preceded by | Redistricted |
| Succeeded by | J. Alex Villalobos |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mario Rafael Díaz-Balart y Caballero (1961-09-25)September 25, 1961 (age 64) Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican (1985–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Democratic (before 1985) |
| Spouse | Tia Díaz-Balart |
| Children | 1 |
| Parent |
|
| Relatives | Díaz-Balart family |
| Education | University of South Florida (BA) |
| Website | House website Campaign website |
Mario Rafael Díaz-Balart y Caballero (/bəˈlɑːrt/bə-LART; born September 25, 1961) is an American politician serving as theU.S. representative forFlorida's 26th congressional district. A member of theRepublican Party, he was elected in 2002, and his district includes much of northwesternMiami-Dade County, includingHialeah, and much of the northern portion of theEverglades.
After RepresentativeAlcee Hastings's death in April 2021, Díaz-Balart became the dean (or longest-serving member) ofFlorida's congressional delegation.
Díaz-Balart was born in 1961 inFort Lauderdale, to Cuban parents, the late Cuban politicianRafael Díaz-Balart, and his wife, Hilda Caballero Brunet.
He is a member of theDíaz-Balart family: His aunt,Mirta Díaz-Balart, was the first wife of Cuban presidentFidel Castro. Her son, and his cousin, wasFidel Ángel "Fidelito" Castro Díaz-Balart. His uncle was the Cuban-Spanish painterWaldo Díaz-Balart. His brotherLincoln Díaz-Balart represented Florida's 21st District from 1993 to 2011. He has two other brothers,José Díaz-Balart, a journalist, and Rafael Díaz-Balart, a banker.
He studiedpolitical science at theUniversity of South Florida before beginning his public service career as an aide to then-Miami MayorXavier Suárez in 1985. In the same year, he changed his political party affiliation fromDemocratic to Republican.[1]
Díaz-Balart was elected to theFlorida House in 1988 and to theFlorida Senate in 1992. He returned to the Florida House in 2000.
Díaz-Balart gave up his seat in the state house to run in the newly created 25th District, which included most of westernMiami-Dade County, part ofCollier County and the mainland portion ofMonroe County.[2] He won with 64% of the vote. He was unopposed for reelection in 2004, and won a third term with 58% of the vote in 2006.
In 2008, Díaz-Balart faced his strongest challenge to date inJoe García, former executive director of theCuban American National Foundation and former chairman of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party. Díaz-Balart defeated Garcia with 53% of the vote.
On February 11, 2010, Díaz-Balart announced his intention to seek election inFlorida's 21st congressional district—being vacated by his brother,Lincoln Díaz-Balart—rather than the 25th district.[3] Unlike the 25th, the 21st has long been considered the Miami area's most Republican district. No other party even fielded a candidate when filing closed on April 30, handing Díaz-Balart the seat.[4]
Díaz-Balart was reelected unopposed in 2012 in the renumbered 25th district.
In 2014, Díaz-Balart ran unopposed.[5]
In 2016, Díaz-Balart beat Democrat Alina Valdes, 62.4% to 37.6%.[6] It was only the third time that a Democrat had filed to run in this district, which had been numbered as the 21st from 1993 to 2013.
TheMiami Herald reported in April 2018 that Díaz-Balart seemed a shoo-in for reelection in November. Former Hialeah mayorRaúl Martínez, a Democrat who had challenged Lincoln Díaz-Balart in what was the 21st in 2008, said the 25th district "is very hard to win for a Democrat, especially if you're not Hispanic and you don't speak Spanish." Valdes, who had lost to him in 2016, was a candidate in the Democratic primary.[7] In April, Annisa Karim, who is active in the Democratic Party, announced that she too would run in the primary. In May, theHerald reported thatMary Barzee Flores, a former judge who had at first decided to run in the 27th district, had opted instead to run for Díaz-Balart's seat.[8]
In the November 2018 general election, Díaz-Balart defeated Barzee Flores, 60.5% to 39.5%.[9]
For the118th Congress:[10]
As of January 2018, Díaz-Balart had voted with his party in 92.4% of votes in the115th United States Congress and voted in line with President Trump's position in 93.1% of votes.[15][16]
He is a founding member of theCongressional Hispanic Conference, a caucus of Hispanic Republican congressmen.[17]
In May 2019, Díaz-Balart voted to prohibitdiscrimination on the basis ofsexual orientation andgender identity inemployment,housing,public accommodations,public education,federal funding,credit, and thejury system under theEquality Act.[18] He joined seven other Republicans and 228 Democrats in supporting the legislation, which passed theUnited States House of Representatives during the116th Congress.[19]
In February 2021, Díaz-Balart changed his position on the legislation, voting against it during the117th Congress on the basis that it did not protect individuals or organizations who opposeLGBTQ rights. In a statement released after his vote, he claimed Democrats ignored Republicans' issues with the bill and "doubled down on some of the most troubling issues, including sabotaging religious freedom."[20]
According toVote Smart's 2016 analysis, Díaz-Balart generally supports pro-life legislation, opposes an income tax increase, opposes mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, opposes federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth, supports lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth, opposes requiring states to adopt federal education standards, supports building theKeystone Pipeline, supports government funding for the development of renewable energy, opposes the federal regulation ofgreenhouse gas emissions, opposes gun-control legislation, supports repealing theAffordable Care Act, opposes requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship, opposes same-sex marriage, and supports allowing individuals to divert a portion of theirSocial Security taxes into personal retirement accounts.[21]
In 2007, Díaz-Balart said, "I know there's a lot of money to be made on the bandwagon ofglobal warming. You can make movies, documentaries, get a lot of research money — and that's okay, I lovecapitalism...My fear is using the bandwagon of global warming to have Congress act on some knee-jerk reaction which will please some editorialists, will hurt our economy, will not do anything to help us in the future."[22]
On May 4, 2017, Díaz-Balart voted to repeal thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and pass theAmerican Health Care Act.[23][24]
In February 2017, Díaz-Balart voted against a resolution that would have directed the House to request 10 years of then-PresidentDonald Trump's tax returns, which would then have been reviewed by theHouse Ways and Means Committee in a closed session.[25]
Díaz-Balart supported Trump'sfiring of FBI DirectorJames Comey, saying, "It is clear that Director Comey had lost the confidence of thedeputy attorney general,attorney general, and the president. Unfortunately, he became a controversial and divisive figure."[26]
In January 2018, after it was reported that Trump had voiced his opposition to immigration fromHaiti,El Salvador, and African countries—which he reportedly called "shithole countries"—in a meeting on immigration reform, Díaz-Balart, who attended the meeting, did not say whether the alleged incident took place.[27][28][29]
Díaz-Balart voted to promotefree trade withPeru, against assisting workers who lose jobs due toglobalization, for theCentral America Free Trade Agreement, for the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement, for the US-Singapore free trade agreement, and for free trade withChile. He was rated 75% by theNational Foreign Trade Council, indicating support for trade engagement.[30]
Díaz-Balart voted for theTax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[31] TheCenter for American Progress, a center-left think-tank, estimated that 41,000 of his constituents would lose their health insurance as a result of the bill's passing.[32]
Díaz-Balart has strongly supported theright of self-determination on theFalkland Islands, over which there is asovereignty dispute betweenArgentina and theUnited Kingdom.[33] On April 18, 2013, he introduced a House resolution calling on the federal government to officially recognize the result of the2013 Falkland Islands sovereignty referendum in which theFalkland Islanders overwhelmingly voted to remain aBritish Overseas Territory.[34] Díaz-Balart introduced a similar resolution in 2017, recognizing the result of thatyear's general election in the Falklands.[35]
Díaz-Balart supported a July 2025appropriations bill that would ban funding for theUnited Nations secretariat andUNRWA, saying that the bill "strengthens national security and supports anAmerica First foreign policy."[36]
In 2007, Díaz-Balart advocated maintaining theCuban embargo, saying, "Some people do not understand the embargo of Cuba. Its purpose is to keep American hard currency out of the hands of a Communist thug by restricting most trade and travel."[37]
In an April 2015 essay forTime magazine, Díaz-Balart wrote that President Obama "continues to appease brutal dictatorships while gaining precious little in return. He conflates the Cuban dictatorship with the Cuban people when in reality, their interests are diametrically opposed." Díaz-Balart noted that "all eight Cuban-American senators and congressmen from both sides of the aisle strongly disagree" with Obama's policy on Cuba, whose people "want to gather peacefully, speak their minds, practice their faiths, access the Internet, and enjoy the fruits of their labor."[38]
In September 2016, Díaz-Balart praised Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump "for firmly stating his commitment today to reverse President Obama's capitulations to the Castro regime" and contrasted Trump's position to what he calledHillary Clinton's "foolhardy stance". The U.S., he said, needs "a president who once again will stand with the Cuban people instead of emboldening and enriching their oppressors."[39]
In a March 2017 memo to the Trump White House, Díaz-Balart argued that if the Cuban government did not conform to theHelms-Burton law within 90 days, the U.S. should revert to its pre-Obama policy on Cuba.[40]
On January 19, 2023, Diaz-Balart said he supported sanctioning and revoking the visas of members of the Honduran government if the legislative body voted to remove Honduras fromCAFTA. He was the first U.S. lawmaker to threaten to revoke the visas of members ofXiomara Castro's government.[41]
President of Colombia,Gustavo Petro, has publicly accused U.S. Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart of participating in conspiracies to overthrow his government.[42] During Petro’s presidency, Díaz-Balart has held several meetings with Colombian right-wing opposition figures, includingÁlvaro Uribe,[43]Vicky Dávila,[44] andEfraín Cepeda.[42]
In June 2025, the newspaperEl País revealed audio recordings related to an alleged conspiracy against President Petro, reportedly led by his former foreign minister, the conservativeÁlvaro Leyva. In the recordings, Leyva claims to have met with Díaz-Balart, seeking his help to influenceMarco Rubio, head of the U.S. Department of State, and the Trump administration in support of a plan to remove Petro from power.[45]
In 2014,The Washington Post reported that Díaz-Balart was "eagerly seeking a deal" on undocumented immigrants "that can somehow please enough Republicans and Democrats to advance. And that upsets many Democrats and Republicans." After being "involved in bipartisan talks on the issue for years", he was "one of the guys most skilled on the issue" and hence "gets plenty of flack from both sides." Díaz-Balart told thePost that "President Obama said that this was going to be one of his first priorities in his first 12 months", but even when "Democrats controlled everything", nothing got done "because they didn't want to do it."[46]
Díaz-Balart supported Trump's 2017executive order to impose a temporary ban on entry to the U.S. to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, saying, "The ban is only temporary until the administration can review and enact the necessary procedures to vet immigrants from these countries. The ban is based on countries the Obama administration identified as 'countries of concern' and not based on a religious test."[47]
He took part in a January 2018 White House meeting aboutDACA, and said that nothing would "divert my focus to stop the deportation of these innocent people whose futures are at stake."[48]
In the aftermath of theStoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018, inParkland, Florida, Díaz-Balart said gun control legislation would not be effective at stopping mass shootings, saying, "I want to make sure we look at things that could make a difference."[49]
Díaz-Balart took part in a November 2013 meeting between American legislators and the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee aboutNSA spying on European officials. He told his European counterparts that they should realize that the U.S. is their greatest ally. "Part of re-establishing trust", he said, "is to know who your friends are and treat them accordingly, and to know who your enemies are and treat them accordingly."[50]
A 2017 report found that Díaz-Balart had delivered millions to his district for road and highway improvements.[51]
Díaz-Balart lives in Miami with his wife, Tia, and their son.[52]
On March 18, 2020, Díaz-Balart announced he had tested positive forCOVID-19. He was the first member of Congress to do so.[53] While recovering from the effects of the disease, though still drained from the experience, Diaz-Balart said he would offer his blood plasma, with antibodies against the virus, for experimental treatment or research purposes.[54]
Díaz-Balart isRoman Catholic.[55]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromFlorida's 25th congressional district 2003–2011 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Chair of theCongressional Hispanic Conference 2003–2005 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromFlorida's 21st congressional district 2011–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theCongressional Hispanic Conference 2009–2025 Served alongside:Tony Gonzales (2023–2025) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromFlorida's 25th congressional district 2013–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromFlorida's 26th congressional district 2023–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | United States representatives by seniority 39th | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
