Mike Beltran Challenges Incumbent Kathy Castor For Florida's 14th District

Mike Beltran is running for Congress in Florida's 14th district. He wants to take Kathy Castor off her seat after twenty years there. The incumbent Democrat represents Tampa Bay and holds the spot as of now. Beltran says he will bring a sharp litigator's cross-examination style to Washington. His plan targets federal waste and foreign aid subsidies while pointing to his own history of bucking party leadership in Tallahassee.

He gave an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital for this bid. Castor has been the face of the district for two decades. Beltran laid out a case rooted in strict fiscal accountability. He also pledged to challenge even Republican leadership on bloated federal budgets. A warning about the Democrats' embrace of socialism came right from him too.

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES UNLEASH MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR MIDTERM BLITZ AGAINST DEM 'SOCIALIST' INSURGENCY is where this story gets heated. Beltran argues that people in Tampa Bay have precious little to show for Castor's two decades of incumbency. She has had no major legislative initiatives, he insists. All she has done is rename post offices. He claims reelecting her means renaming every post office from Tampa to Timbuktu.

She votes with her party over 90% of the time, including radical socialists. Beltran says she voted in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi and is poised to elect Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. That man would appoint a Chair Raskin, a Chair Omar, and a Chair Cortez. Those folks would push radical policies in Congress that are completely out of line with what Tampa families need.

In the Florida Legislature he served as an independent conservative voice. He was not automatically beholden to party leadership there. He pledges to continue that approach in Washington now. I've had the courage to vote against special interests even when my own party had lost its way, he told the interviewer. He voted against insurance companies and home builders and trial lawyers. He voted against various special interests whenever somebody was doing something that wasn't good for Tampa families.

He had a bipartisan record throughout his time starting in 2019 and continuing through to 2024. Castor discovered bipartisanship merely weeks ago according to him. So he is always going to do what's best for the communities that he represents regardless of party, regardless of special interests, regardless of pressure. That is what he is proud of having that independent voting record.

Beltran argues that the United States needs to reexamine its military and geopolitical relationships with an eye to fiscal prudence. It cannot be a one-sided exchange, he says. You cannot have a wealthy country like Germany spend under 2% of GDP on their military when we are spending over 5% of our GDP on our military budgets about a trillion dollars. A lot of that is spent overseas protecting other wealthy countries.

You see Ukraine and Israel defending themselves from their adversaries. They're doing a good job of that. But the United States is borrowing $2 trillion a year from countries like China. That causes inflation. What that says is we don't have money to be sending particularly to wealthy allies like Germany and Spain. These are countries where we have bases where we've had trouble getting basing privileges or overflight rights for the conflicts that we do need to engage in. We shouldn't be subsidizing them anymore.

You see Israel spends over 10% of GDP on defense as does South Korea. Those countries are carrying the weight of their own defense. But we don't see that from all of our NATO allies. They're a lot closer to these rogue states and to these conflict regions than we are. They should be doing more and they're doing less. That is unacceptable.

As an attorney Beltran makes the case that he will bring a strong skill-set to Capitol Hill. He wants to do away with business as usual and fight for the citizens of Hillsborough County. My legal skills are quite good, he stated. I'm a good cross examiner.

Attorney Beltran says he will scrutinize witnesses before committees with precision. He litigates in federal courts and knows the statutes by heart. He understands which issues need redress. He writes laws that judges can apply easily and attorneys can explain to clients for compliance.

"I'm proud to be a practicing attorney," Beltran states. "I've helped businesses and individuals throughout Tampa Bay for almost 20 years."

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"And my opponent is also an attorney, but she hasn't practiced in a very long time," he claims. She was supposedly a land use attorney before becoming a county commissioner. He doubts she brings that same skill set to the table. "I've never seen her cross-examine a witness to any effect," Beltran asserts. He adds that he has not seen her apply legal skills to legislative initiatives either. It is difficult to identify anything she enacted with particular value for Tampa or elsewhere.

Kathy Castor has repeatedly voted against ordinary Americans in Florida's 14th district, according to Beltran. She opposed tax cuts for the middle class and working class and retirees. She blocked removing taxes on tips, Social Security income, and overtime pay. Her recent vote wanted taxpayer funds to pay for trans surgeries for children. "That wasn't something that we have to reach into ancient history to find," he says. He opposed that measure himself.

"I see no reason why a single mother here in Hillsborough County should be paying taxes to pay for trans surgeries for minors while she actually is being taxed on her overtime or her tips."

Beltran pledges to confront his own party leadership if policies disagree with him, yet notes he will work with Democrats too. "Obviously, we've had Republicans who have also spent too much money," he explains. He plans to go to Washington and work across the aisle to identify waste, fraud, and abuse. He aims to find unnecessary government programs and enforce cost controls so they remain fiscal conservatives as claimed.

"That's what's necessary to save this country because we need to balance the budget and pay down the debt," he argues. "We need to live within our means." If they fail to balance the budget, creditors will cut off lending until someone forces a fix on their credit terms.

Democratic socialist candidates have won Democratic primaries across the nation and in Florida recently. Beltran notes Castor refused to condemn socialist ideology or those candidates with such views inside her party. "We see Kathy Castor, who's embraced Angie Nixon," he says. Nixon is one of those avowed socialist candidates. She claimed her party was a big tent that needed to accommodate her. Beltran admits he would not like being in any tent with her, but his opponent welcomes her warmly.

"She's going to vote in lockstep with these socialists," he warns. First they will elect Hakeem Jeffries and then appoint socialists to committee chairmanships. She has done very little to distance herself from radicals within her party. Even as she masquerades recently as a moderate, she will empower the socialists.

"And that's really what's at stake in November," he concludes. "It's not just me, it's not just Kathy Castor." The direction of the country hangs in the balance. They must decide whether to embrace radical policies or pursue economic growth and prosperity here in the United States.