At CD 2 Democratic debate, differences emerge on abolishing ICE and expanding SCOTUS

At a debate in Bay County, four Democrats seeking to flip Florida’s 2nd Congressional District largely agreed on issues, but emphasized different items as their top priority.

Yen Bailey, Brice Barnes, Amanda Green and Nic Zateslo each made the case for why they would be the strongest candidate to flip a traditionally Republican seat.

Barnes tied nearly every response back to the theme of affordability, which polls show is a top concern for voters heading into the Midterms. She hammered President Donald Trump on his plans for a White House ballroom and laid the blame for rising gas and grocery prices squarely at the feet of Republicans.  

Zateslo, an entrepreneur who has served as a tech executive, sought to establish himself as the candidate most ready to address challenges posed by AI and hyperscale data centers. He has appeared at several recent County Commission meetings across the district to vouch for data center moratoriums.

“We are automating ourselves into poverty,” Zateslo told debate attendees Wednesday, calling on Congress to pass a national data center ban.

Green led the way on foreign policy questions, leaning into her background working for the U.S. Agency for International Development and the fact that she was born on Tyndall Air Force Base into a military family. She criticized the Trump administration for engaging in “endless wars” and taking actions she says have dismantled American soft power and “vilified allies” like Mexico and Canada.

Bailey spoke about being the daughter of two Vietnamese refugees: her father, a pilot in the South Vietnamese Air Force, and her mother, a seamstress. She emphasized the need to fight corruption by banning stock trading and prediction markets for the President, Cabinet officials and lawmakers.

Candidates were aligned on most issues. All candidates supported some form of Medicare for all, overturning Citizens United and investing in clean energy.

Unlike the May 18 GOP debate in Tallahassee, there were few back-and-forths or major disagreements. However, Green said she supports expanding the U.S. Supreme Court to 13 Justices, one for each federal circuit court. Bailey, a lawyer, said she does not want to expand the court but proposed other reforms including 18-year term limits and regular appointments every two years.

Bailey was the only candidate to explicitly call for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be abolished. Other candidates voiced strong support for holding the agency accountable, but stopped short of calling for its elimination.

“This is an agency that is beyond reform. It has lost all credibility,” Bailey said.

Asked how he planned to win a district that voted 61.6% for U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn in 2024, Zateslo noted that most of his family members are Republicans, and that he does “not believe they hate the country.” Bailey, the Democratic nominee in 2024, said her husband is a Republican and that she used to be one herself until she switched her affiliation around 2008.

Green touted her endorsements from labor groups and argued she could connect with farmers and other working-class voters. The sprawling district encompasses 16 counties and is Florida’s most rural congressional district and its largest by land area.

Barnes was the most bullish on Democrats’ chances of flipping CD 2 in November. She touted her work getting Amendment 4 on the ballot in 2024, and pointed out that a majority of the district voted in favor of expanding abortion rights.

“We are going to take back the house because we are going to flip this district,” Barnes said. “We are going to be flipping seats that Republicans never thought were possible.”

A poll released in early June found Barnes in a statistical tie with possible GOP nominee Evan Power. Democrats last won the seat in 2014, when former Gov. Bob Graham’s daughter Gwen Graham narrowly won. But Democrats are optimistic that the strong national environment for their party could make the race a toss-up.

The Republican Primary features eight candidates vying to succeed Dunn, who is retiring after a decade representing the district due to health concerns.