Heading into Tuesday's statewide primary elections, one of the most closely watched races locally is the free-for-all among seven Republicans trying to become the congressman of the newly gerrymandered 9th District that now includes Vero Beach and Indian River County.

The seven Republicans are fighting it out for the right to challenge and try to unseat the incumbent five-term Democrat now representing the district, Darren Soto of Orlando, who does not have a primary opponent and is hoping to become the first Democrat to represent Vero in three decades.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled state legislature earlier this year drew up a new congressional map, a process that is usually done just once a decade after a new census comes out, for the express purpose of giving Republicans four more seats in Congress and a better shot at holding on to control of the House of Representatives.

The new map, if Republicans' calculations are correct, would increase the GOP margin in Florida's congressional delegation from the present 20-8 to 24-4. The redrawn map has withstood all legal challenges and will be in effect for the November mid-term elections.

Before being redrawn, the 9th District was made up of urban enclaves in the Orlando metro area with Democratic majorities. It now includes reliably Republican Indian River County along with areas of Okeechobee and rural parts of Polk County. Republicans usually get at least 60 percent of the votes in Indian River County.

The highly respected Cook Political Report used to rate the district as solidly Democratic under its old boundaries, but now lists it as "likely Republican" and says that Soto, the incumbent Democrat, faces an "uphill battle" to hold on to his seat.

Based on how people within the district's new boundaries have voted in the past, Cook now puts the district at R+8, meaning the Republicans should have a margin of 8 percentage points.

That makes the new 9th Congressional District, which now includes Vero Beach, an attractive target for aspiring Republican politicians. At one point there were nine people in the race – all men. Two withdrew or were disqualified, leaving seven names on the ballot.

The two heavyweights in the field who have raised the most money and purchased TV ads to gain name recognition are Dan Green, a 50-year-old Vero Beach resident and Pentagon official during President Trump's first term, and Thomas E. Chalifoux Jr., 78, a retired Army colonel and former Republican state committeeman and Osceola County School Board Chair from the Orlando area.

Green says he has raised $1.14 million, while Chalifoux claims a war chest of $2.3 million.

Also in the race are:

• Justin Story, a retired Marine from St. Cloud who stresses "faith, family and gun ownership" and has raised $42,000 at last report.

• Steve Rance, 59, an Air Force veteran from Ocoee who wants to make sure the First Amendment won't be used to "censor conservative voices" and has raised $136,000.

• Jorge Martinez, 61, a Cuban exile from Orlando with his own accounting firm who did not disclose finance data for his campaign.

• Marcus Carter from Kissimmee, who claims to be running a real grassroots campaign and boasts the endorsement of the American Patriot Executive Committee (APEC), and has raised about $20,000.

• Ben Butler, a Central Florida cattle farmer who was appointed by DeSantis to the board of the South Florida Water Management District; he did not provide financial information on his campaign.

Vero Beach has been part of seven different congressional districts over the past 50 years, including the 15th District two separate times, as the state population grew and political winds reshaped the electoral map.

Vero was last represented by a Democrat more than 30 years ago when the city was part of the 15th District. Democrat Jim Bacchus held the seat from 1993-1995.

Since then, Vero Beach has been represented by three Republicans, while a part of various districts: David Weldon (1995-2009); Bill Posey (2009-2025); and Mike Haridopolos, who was elected in 2024, took office in 2025 and is running for re-election in the 8th Congressional District, which used to include Vero but now does not.

The new 8th District now includes some Orlando metro areas but is still rated solidly Republican.

Haridopolos has endorsed Green in the 9th District race, as has Ohio congressman Jim Jordon, the combative chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

No Vero Beach resident has ever represented the city in congress and Green would be the first if he survives the primary and then wins the November general election. However, local political observers have noted that Green has not previously been active in local politics and that the biggest backers of his campaign are mostly in Washington, D.C., where he served in the Pentagon as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development during President Trump's first term.

Most of the Republican candidates, in their ads, literature and campaign websites, hang their hats on loyalty to President Donald Trump, pledging to support his policies if elected. Trump's endorsement has often proved decisive in other Republican primaries across the country, but he has not yet backed anyone in the contest for the 9th District seat.

Despite GOP confidence that any one of their candidates will be able to win the district in the general election, Indian River County Democratic leader Bill Evans says he believes Soto has an excellent chance of winning re-election.

Soto has brought home the bacon from Washington during his 10 years in congress with federal money for traffic improvements in the I-4 corridor in Orlando, and he drew a good crowd during a recent meet-and-greet trip to Vero Beach.

"We'll have to see who Soto will be running against," says Evans, adding that none of the Republicans who are running scare the Democrats. He noted that Green, even though he is a Vero Beach resident, doesn't have deep roots here with a local organization.

If there is "blue wave" favoring the Democrats in the fall elections, Soto could well be re-elected, Evans says. The Cook Political Report noted that Soto ran 9 percentage points ahead of Kamala Harris in the last election two years ago.

Soto, 48, is of Puerto Rican descent through his father. A New Jersey native, he obtained an undergraduate degree from Rutgers and a law degree from Geroge Washington University in DC. He moved to Florida in 2002 and served in the Florida state house and senate before winning election to the House of Representatives in Washington in 2016.

Next Tuesday's primary will also select statewide Republican and Democratic candidates who want to succeed DeSantis as governor, as well as the Democrat and Republican candidates for Agriculture Secretary and State Auditor, and the Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican Sen. Ashley Moody.