Lois Frankel Faces Republican Deborah Adeimy in Palm Beach County's Redrawn 23rd District, a Safe Seat Under DeSantis's New Map

U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, the West Palm Beach Democrat who has represented Palm Beach County in Congress since 2013, faces Republican Deborah Adeimy on Nov. 3 in a redrawn 23rd Congressional District. The redrawn district sits entirely within Palm Beach County, and analysts consider it one of the safest Democratic seats left in Florida. The contest is a quiet exception in a year when Gov. Ron DeSantis's mid-decade congressional map has put several other South Florida Democrats on the defensive.

Frankel spent most of the past four years representing the 22nd District. When the Legislature and DeSantis redrew Florida's congressional lines this spring, that seat was pushed west and turned into a Republican target. Frankel moved to the new 23rd District, which keeps much of her old coastal territory, and won the Aug. 18 Democratic primary. Adeimy, a West Palm Beach financial planner making her third run for the seat, won the Republican primary the same night.

Who is running

Frankel, 78, was born in New York City and earned her law degree from Georgetown in 1973 before working as an assistant public defender, according to a profile of the race by Stet News republished by WLRN on Oct. 26. She won a Florida House seat in 1986, became the first woman to serve as minority leader in that chamber, served seven nonconsecutive terms in the state House and was mayor of West Palm Beach from 2003 to 2011 before going to Congress.

Adeimy, 56, is a certified financial planner, a fifth-generation Floridian and a graduate of Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach. Stet News reported that she lost two earlier Republican primaries for Frankel's seat to Dan Franzese, who is running in the 25th District this year. Her family ran a construction company whose projects included the driveway and entrance at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump's Palm Beach estate, which sits inside the new district.

In the August primaries, Frankel defeated progressive challenger Victoria Doyle and candidate Mark Piper, and The Associated Press called the race less than an hour after polls closed. Adeimy easily defeated Paola Branda for the Republican nomination, WLRN reported.

How the new map reshaped Palm Beach County

DeSantis signed the new congressional map on May 4. It reworked 21 of Florida's 28 U.S. House districts and was drawn to give Republicans a shot at as many as four seats then held by Democrats. A voting rights group sued over the map in Leon County circuit court shortly after it was signed, but the districts remained in place for qualifying in June and are the lines voters will use next week.

The old 22nd District covered urban Palm Beach County from West Palm Beach down the coast through Lantana, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach, reaching inland to Wellington. Under the new map, the 22nd shifts west to inland Palm Beach and Broward communities such as Wellington, Parkland and Weston, then runs across rural Hendry County into southern Collier County, including Marco Island. That district voted 55% to 44% for Trump in 2024 after narrowly backing Joe Biden in 2020, according to a News Service of Florida breakdown of the map published by WLRN.

The new 23rd District, previously held by Rep. Jared Moskowitz and drawn across the Palm Beach-Broward line, now lies fully within Palm Beach County. Stet News described it as including most of Frankel's old district, from Riviera Beach to Delray Beach, along with Greenacres, part of West Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago. Moskowitz, whose Coral Springs home was drawn out, is running in the new 25th District instead.

The changes made Frankel's seat considerably bluer. Under the new lines, the district voted 56.2% to 42.5% for Democrat Kamala Harris over Trump in 2024, according to figures from Democratic data analyst Matthew Isbell reported by the Florida Phoenix. The old Frankel district went for Harris by about 5.5 points. The Cook Political Report rates the new 23rd as favoring a Democrat, and Sabato's Crystal Ball lists it as safe Democratic. Stet News reported that the new map benefits Frankel alone among Florida's Democratic members of Congress.

The money gap

The fundraising numbers point to a lopsided race. Through the quarterly reports filed with the Federal Election Commission covering the period ending Sept. 30, the following totals were reported by Stet News.

Frankel's donors included AIPAC, U.S. Sugar and the American Association for Justice, each giving $10,000, according to Stet News. Adeimy's in-kind contributions to her own campaign covered items such as rent and utilities.

What each candidate is campaigning on

Frankel has built her campaign around opposition to Trump, telling Stet News that her "real opponent is Donald Trump." She lists reproductive rights, the cost of living, Social Security and election protection as her priorities. She has said she expects to chair the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees foreign assistance if Democrats win control of the House. During the primary, she pointed to Inflation Reduction Act provisions such as the $35 monthly insulin cap for Medicare patients and the $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket prescription costs, WLRN reported.

Adeimy is running on government spending, which she blames for inflation, and has criticized what she calls "wokeism." She has called reforming Social Security her top priority. Stet News reported that she declined to answer its questions on Affordable Care Act subsidies, the war in Iran and Trump's agenda, saying the election was too close. She also did not complete the League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County candidate questionnaire. A biographical video for her campaign labels Frankel a "Grandmother of Corruption."

Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago estate is in the district, has not endorsed Adeimy and left her off a list of 24 congressional endorsements, Stet News reported. Adeimy has argued that the new lines handed Democrats a voter registration advantage of about nine points, which she described as massive.

Why the race matters beyond Palm Beach County

The 23rd District is not one of the seats the new map was built to flip, but it sits next door to several that are. In the new 22nd District, Republican Casey Askar, a Naples businessman and Marine veteran whom Trump endorsed after the primary, faces Democrat Pia Dandiya. The Cook Political Report rates that race a toss-up, WLRN reported on Oct. 22. Moskowitz's race in the new 25th District, which runs along the coast from Palm Beach County to Miami Beach and voted for Trump in 2024, is rated as leaning Democratic.

Statewide, Cook also lists Rep. Kathy Castor's Tampa-area 14th District as a toss-up and Rep. Darren Soto's reshaped 9th District in Central Florida as likely Republican. By drawing Democratic voters out of the surrounding Palm Beach and Broward seats, map drawers made the 23rd safer for Democrats while improving Republican odds elsewhere. A comfortable Frankel win would fit the design of the map rather than challenge it.

For Palm Beach County voters, the outcome also determines who carries the county's coastal communities, from Riviera Beach to Delray Beach, into a Congress whose majority is in play nationally.

What's next

Early voting is underway across Florida and runs at least through Saturday, Oct. 31, with some counties offering it through Sunday, Nov. 1. On Election Day, polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Voters who are unsure of their new district can check their registration and sample ballot with the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, since the redraw moved many residents into different congressional districts than they voted in two years ago.

The winner will serve a two-year term beginning in January 2027. Frankel would begin her eighth term.