*By Carlo Versano*
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat seeking to unseat a Republican incumbent in Florida's 26th congressional district, wants the election in November to be a referendum on healthcare.
In a district with more than 100,000 families relying on Obamacare, "the top issue continues to be healthcare" Mucarsel-Powell said Monday in an interview on Cheddar.
Mucarsel-Powell is challenging incumbent GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo in an area that includes Key West and a chunk of Miami-Dade ー and went for Hillary Clinton over President Trump by double-digits in 2016.
Curbelo, a Republican who votes with Trump 82 percent of time time according to Nate Silver's [FiveThirtyEight](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/carlos-curbelo/), is leading in the [polls](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article216729815.html), though Mucarsel-Powell is hoping that an activated base of female and millennial voters will encourage a blue wave so Democrats can take the House in November.
But Mucarsel-Powell continues to be plagued by a report earlier this summer published in [The Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/shady-oligarchs-firm-paid-dem-candidates-husband-dollar700000?ref=author) that claimed her husband, attorney Robert Powell, has financial ties to a Ukrainian oligarch.
Her husband "has absolutely no relationship to the person they're claiming he does," Muscarsel-Powell said, likely referring to Ihor Kolomoisky, a wealthy Ukrainian businessman who has been accused of [contract killings and embezzlement](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article214974800.html).
For now, Mucarsel-Powell is staying focused on healthcare ー largely to protect her female constituents.
"Women have had enough of this administration, of looking at these images of men making decisions when it comes to their healthcare," she said.
For full interview, [click here] (https://cheddar.com/videos/flipping-south-florida-could-be-an-uphill-battle-for-democrats).
Cheddar News checks in to see what to look out for Next Week on the Street as former president Donald Trump makes an appearance in federal court after being indicted. Investors will also keep an eye on the Federal Reserve meeting to see what comes out of that while earnings continue to pour in.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the U.S. is investing more than $100 million in the Caribbean region to crack down on weapons trafficking, help alleviate Haiti’s humanitarian crisis and support climate change initiatives.
It is arguably the most perilous of multiple legal threats against the former president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the U.S. is investing more than $100 million in the Caribbean region to crack down on weapons trafficking, help alleviate Haiti’s humanitarian crisis and support climate change initiatives.
At Cleveland's Urban Kutz Barbershop, customers can flip through magazines as they wait, or help themselves to drug screening tests left out in a box on a table with a somber message: “Your drugs could contain fentanyl. Please take free test strips.”
President Joe Biden on Thursday condemned a wave of “cruel” and “callous” state legislation curbing the rights, visibility and health care access of LGBTQ+ people, while causing the community to feel under attack for being who they are.
Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, has died. He was 93.
The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a surprising 5-4 ruling in favor of Black voters in a congressional redistricting case, ordering the creation of a second district with a large Black population.
Mike Pence opened his presidential bid with an unusually forceful critique of former President Donald Trump over Jan. 6, his temperament and abortion on Wednesday as he became the first vice president in modern history to challenge his former running mate.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wasted no time going after Donald Trump while launching his presidential campaign on Tuesday, calling the former president and current Republican primary front-runner a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog" and arguing that he's the only one who can stop him.
