Thursday, October 15, 2026
B.C. votes in 9 days

Florida’s 26th District

U.S. House · FL-26

Election day November 3, 2026 · forecast of October 15, 2026

Our forecast gives the Republicans a 95% chance of winning, with an average lead of 14.1 points.

Safe seat. Chance of a final gap under 5 points: 12%.

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Republican 56.8%

    Mario Diaz-Balart, incumbent

  • Democrat 43.2%

    Nicole Locklin

Thin vertical mark: 2024 result.

Compared with the average

Republican Democrat
FL-26 56.8%43.2%
National averageUnited States 44.2%+12.6 54.5%−11.3

Simple average of the 435 districts, not weighted by population.

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Current member

Mario Diaz-Balart · Republican

Primary results

Held August 18, 2026 · Official source

Democratic primary Nicole Locklin 0.0%
Republican primary Mario Diaz-Balart 0.0%

Who's running

The candidates

Candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Republican Incumbent

    Mario Diaz-Balart

    source
  • Democrat Challenger

    Nicole Locklin

    source
  • Other Challenger

    Meidinger Hosey, Deborah Ann

    General-election qualification remains to be verified.

Previous election (2024)

The Republicans won by 60.0 points.

Our current projection: the Republicans ahead by 14.1 points.

Where these voters came from

This district was redrawn in the 2025-2026 redistricting. Share of its voters from each former district:

  • Former district 26 54%
  • Former district 20 37%
  • Former district 25 9%

Nearby districts

Party ahead and how sure the projection is.

  • FL-24 Democrat, safe seat
  • FL-25 Democrat, toss-up
  • FL-20 Democrat, safe seat
  • FL-27 Republican, competitive
  • FL-22 Democrat, toss-up
  • FL-23 Democrat, safe seat

Watch list

The tightest races

The smallest projected gaps between the top two.

  1. AZ-2Republican52%5.7-point gap
  2. KY-6Republican53%5.8-point gap
  3. VA-1Republican58%5.8-point gap
Forecast updated