Calling out federal waste and foreign aid subsidies while pointing to his own record of bucking party leadership in Tallahassee, GOP 14th congressional district nominee Mike Beltran promises to bring a sharp litigator’s cross-examination to Washington’s budget crisis. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital detailing his bid to unseat 20-year Democratic incumbent Kathy Castor, the former Florida state representative laid out a case rooted in strict fiscal accountability, pledged to challenge even Republican leadership on bloated federal budgets, and warned of the Democrats' embrace of socialism. HOUSE CONSERVATIVES UNLEASH MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR MIDTERM BLITZ AGAINST DEM 'SOCIALIST' INSURGENCY Beltran argues that despite her lengthy tenure on Capitol Hill, the people of Tampa Bay have not been served well by Kathy Castor.
"People in Tampa Bay have precious little to show for Kathy Castor's two decades of incumbency. She's had no major legislative initiatives. All she's really done is rename post offices.
And all that's likely to happen if we reelect her is for her to rename every post office from Tampa to Timbuktu. "She votes with her party over 90% of the time, including radical socialists. She voted in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi and she's poised to elect the Speaker Hakeem Jeffries.
And Speaker Hakeem Jeffries would appoint a Chair Raskin, a Chair Omar, a Chair Cortez, and those folks would push radical policies in Congress that are completely out of line with what Tampa families need." Beltran argues that in the Florida Legislature he served as an independent conservative voice, not automatically beholden to party leadership, and pledges to continue that approach in Washington. "I've had the courage to vote against special interests even when my own party had lost its way. I've voted against insurance companies, home builders, trial lawyers, I voted against various special interests…whenever somebody was doing something that wasn't good for Tampa families.
"And I had that bipartisan record throughout my time, starting in 2019 and continuing through to 2024, unlike my opponent who discovered bipartisanship merely weeks ago. So I'm always going to do what's best for the communities that I represent, regardless of party, regardless of special interests, regardless of pressure. And that's what I'm 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.
You cannot have a wealthy country like Germany spend under 2% of GDP on their military when we're spending over 5% of our GDP on our military budgets, about a trillion dollars. And a lot of that is spent overseas protecting other wealthy countries. "You see Ukraine and Israel, they're defending themselves from their adversaries.
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