LARGO, Fla. — The five Republicans vying to flip Florida’s 13^th Congressional District in Pinellas County from blue to red later this year engaged in a debate Wednesday night in Largo.

The seat has been held for the past five years plus by Democrat Charlie Crist, who is stepping down from congress to run for governor this year. 

The seat has leaned Democratic by several percentage points over the past few years, but redistricting efforts are expected to make it more even, if not outright Republican leaning once the map gets through the Legislature (though it could end up in the courts as redistricting for congressional seats did after the last reapportionment in 2012).

Of all of the GOP candidates in the field, Anna Paulina Luna currently stands out. The 32-year-old Air Force veteran won the Republican primary for congress in CD 13 in 2020, has received the all-important endorsement from former President Donald J. Trump, and has had consistent double-digit leads over her four challengers in most polls for months.

“I’m the only Trump endorsed candidate in this race,” she proclaimed as she moved away from her podium and walked across the stage at the Abundant Life Ministries Church in Largo. “I’m pro-life, pro-God, pro-gun and anti-globalist.”

Two of the four other Republicans have also run for congressional seats in recent years. Amanda Makki finished second to Luna in the 2020 CD 13 GOP race, while Christine Quinn has competed several times unsuccessfully against Democrat Kathy Castor in Hillsborough County.

Makki invoked how her family escaped Iran when she was literally a baby.

“Much like the images that we’ve seen over the last month in Ukraine and what we saw earlier this summer in Afghanistan, my family and I fled a repressive, religious, dictatorial regime.”

Quinn laid out her platform, which includes empowering parents through school choice, securing the Southern border and reducing federal spending.

“Communism is here,” she said. “It’s not something that is going to happen. It’s already happening and we are seeing it right now.”

Clearwater attorney Kevin Hayslett is the latest entrant into the race. Like the other candidates, he emphasized that he would fight for election integrity issues if elected to serve in Washington.

“First thing we’ve got to do is make sure that the American public has faith in our elections. Period. That’s job one,” he said.

Audrey Henson is a St. Petersburg native who currently runs a small construction company. She spoke about how frustrating it has been as a business owner to hire people in the Covid era.

“We all saw during the pandemic that giving out free money doesn’t work. People need opportunity,” she said, while adding that she was “sick of carpetbaggers who can’t win this seat” (Henson and Haslett are the only candidates in the GOP race who were born in Pinellas).

The gloves came off when the candidates were allowed to ask each other questions. While the first three candidates lobbed relative softballs at each other, Makki went after Luna, asking her why she had supported the Obama-Biden ticket.

That drew the wrath of the moderator, but Makki persisted, and Luna ultimately answered, saying initially that there were others in the crowd who had supported Obama, mentioning Conservative Grounds coffee shop owner Cliff Gephart.

“I’ve not supported Obama in the way that you claim I have,” she then said. “But you should not alienate people who are coming over to the Republican platform.”

This was the first debate between the GOP candidates during this election cycle.

The top Democrats running for the open seat include state lawmakers Ben Diamond, Michele Rayner and former Obama advisor Eric Lynn. Christian Hotchkiss is also running in the Democratic primary.