page_title: 1989 Florida's 18th congressional district special election
section_title: General election
hierarchical_section_title: 1989 Florida's 18th congressional district special election / General election
caption_attribution_description: English: Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen speaks shortly after being elected to Congress in a special election.
context_page_description: A special election to determine the member of the United States House of Representatives for Florida's 18th congressional district was held on August 29, 1989. Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen defeated Democrat Gerald Richman in the runoff vote, 53.14% to 46.85%. Ros-Lehtinen replaced Claude Pepper, who died in office from stomach cancer.
  Changing demographics in Florida's 18th congressional district had moved the largely white district into a 40% Cuban American district. The election campaign followed this trend as the campaign was dominated by discussions of race after Republican National Chairman Lee Atwater declared that the district should become the "Cuban American seat". Democrat Gerald Richman ran a campaign with the slogan "This is an American seat" in response to Atwater's comments, and both Ros-Lehtinen and Richman appealed to their respective racial bases in the general. Ros-Lehtinen won a competitive campaign to flip the seat, and became the first Cuban American to serve in Congress.
context_section_description: The racial themes from both primaries continued throughout the general election. Richman's campaign came under continued fire for his "This is an American seat" slogan, while Ros-Lehtinen's campaign was criticized for a Spanish language brochure which emphasized Richman's Jewish religion. Richman spent more than $300,000 of his own money on his campaign. Ros-Lehtinen called Richman and his campaign bigoted and refused to appear at any debates or events with him.  A poll by The Miami Herald found that 28 out of every 29 Cuban American voters supported Ros-Lehtinen while 24 of every 25 Jewish voters supported Richman, regardless of normal political ideology and leanings. National Republicans came to support Ros-Lehtinen, including President George H. W. Bush who hosted a fundraiser for her campaign and appeared jointly with her.
  Ros-Lehtinen won the seat with a six point margin, 53 to 47 percent. Voter turnout matched strongly with ethnic lines. According to exit polling, approximately 60 percent of the district's Hispanic voters turned out, while only 40 percent of the Anglos and 34 percent of the African Americans. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen became the first Latina and the first Cuban American to serve in Congress after this victory. After the election, the Anti-Defamation League called for a "healing process" for the communities of the district and described the election as a "dark moment". Both campaigns were censured by the Fair Campaigns Practices Committee, a watchdog group, for the racially tinged campaigns they ran.
caption: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen speaks in 1989 after her successful election.
exif: {}