A political outsider is looking to shake up the Democratic primary in Florida's 23rd Congressional District, spanning parts of Broward and southern Palm Beach counties.
Retired intellectual property attorney Victoria Doyle told WLRN she’s running a "scrappy and nimble" campaign against longtime incumbent Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach.
The candidates are taking part in a debate Thursday at 6:30pm at First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches in a forum hosted by the Palm Beach County Democratic Party. The debate, however, is closed to the media.
The debate comes less than two weeks before the Aug. 18 Democratic primary. Early in-person voting begins this weekend.
Doyle, who advocates for her positions at local and county commission meetings and public events, is calling for transformative changes, including comprehensive federal AI data center regulations, a $25 minimum wage to help tackle the affordability crisis, and single-payer universal health coverage that replaces private insurance industries with one public agency that pays all medical bills using tax funds.
"People dealing with cancer or surgery or other catastrophic chronic illness should not have to spend 80% of their day fighting with their insurance company to get the care they need," she said.
Doyle said the current for-profit model is "broken" and "greedy," leaving families to struggle with insurance companies during their most vulnerable moments.
The newly drawn 23rd congressional district runs from West Palm Beach to Boca Raton. And it includes Boynton Beach, Briny Breezes, Delray Beach, Greenacres, Lake Worth Beach, Lantana, Palm Beach, Palm Springs, and Wellington.
Registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by almost 41,000 votes in the district There were nearly 126,000 No Party Affiliation voters, who represented the third-largest group of voters behind Democrats and Republicans.
Rep. Lois Frankel, who was first elected in 2012, places emphasis on campaign issues such as lowering every day costs. She supported legislation to reduce prescription drug prices and extended Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Frankel highlights key legislative wins from the Inflation Reduction Act, such as capping insulin at $35 a month and prescription out-of-pocket costs at $2,000.
Frankel is also a stanch supporter of the state of Israel, and has fought for "assistance to Israel and innocent civilians in Gaza," according to her campaign site.
In a year when voters upset with the Democratic Party mainstream have propelled outsider candidates to victory across the country, Doyle is hoping to buck the trend in a primary race that represents a proxy battle between the establishment and the progressive wing of the Democratic party in South Florida.
And Doyle, who has raised nearly $400,000 from private individual donors to Frankel's $2 million, is making her independence from corporate donors the centerpiece of her campaign — she took aim at Frankel for accepting corporate and PAC contributions.
She told WLRN her 30-year career in federal law provides the expertise needed to navigate Capitol Hill, while her refusal to accept PAC money allows her to prioritize constituents over special interests.
"I arrive with a relative independence and freedom that career politicians just don't have," Doyle said. "I get to vote anyway way I want being unbeholden to no one."
Doyle also took aim at Frankel who was among 75 House Democrats backing a House resolution condemning antisemitism and expressing "gratitude" for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other law enforcement officers or ICE.
She said she supports comprehensive immigration reform but "beyond the border we absolutely must continue to accept refugees."
She praised immigrants for their social and economic contributions to South Florida.
"We respect human rights. We've always been a refugee, asylum country in terms of protecting the most vulnerable around the world," she said.
