*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).
In a TV interview Sunday, Yellen didn't rule out President Joe Biden acting on his own to try to avert a first-ever federal default.
North Carolina lawmakers on Thursday approved and sent to the governor a ban on nearly all abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, down from the current 20 weeks, in response to last year’s overturning of Roe v. Wade at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. A Republican megadonor paid two years of private school tuition for a child raised by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who did not disclose the payments, a lawyer who has represented Thomas and his wife acknowledged Thursday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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