Darren Soto
DIncumbentFEC H6FL09179
Sign in + take the quiz to see alignment.
Raised this cycle$1.2M
Cash on hand: $833K
All Florida races
2026 race
FL-09 — U.S. House
6 active candidates on file with the FEC. Incumbent: Darren Soto.
Read the record. Not the rhetoric.
See where these candidates stand — and who's funding them.
DeepSyte tracks the money and the record in every race against the issues you care about — not party, not press releases. Take the 2-minute values quiz to see your alignment.
Election day
135days
Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Make sure you can vote
Disclosed money in race
$3.7M
Candidate + outside spending. See finance breakdown below.
Incumbent
Currently in office
Challengers
Sorted by fundraising
Thomas Colonel Chalifoux
RChallengerFEC H4FL09182
Sign in + take the quiz to see alignment.
Raised this cycle$2.3M
Cash on hand: $2.1M
Howard Steven Rance
RChallengerFEC H6FL10185
Sign in + take the quiz to see alignment.
Raised this cycle$94K
Cash on hand: $38K
Justin Story
RChallengerFEC H6FL09252
Sign in + take the quiz to see alignment.
Raised this cycle$42K
Cash on hand: $5K
Jorge Antonio Malavet
RChallengerFEC H6FL09260
Sign in + take the quiz to see alignment.
Raised this cycle$24K
Cash on hand: $6K
Gregory Marcus Carter
RChallengerFEC H4FL09190
Sign in + take the quiz to see alignment.
Raised this cycle$15K
Cash on hand: $2K
Local signal
Early read on FL-09 — U.S. House
A directional read on where this seat is trending, from the signals we have so far. This is an early scaffold — more inputs light up as coverage and constituent activity accrue.
Coverage tone · leans negative
Recent news coverage of Darren Soto over the last 90 days.
0 positive3 neutral1 negative
4 articles · AI-assessed sentiment toward the rep. A media signal, not a poll of the district.
Constituent stakes
No one here has staked a position on a tracked vote yet. As neighbors weigh in on /pressure campaigns, the district's lean will show up here.
Money in the race
Finance breakdown
Disclosed funding shaping this race — both the money candidates raise themselves and the outside spending dropped by independent groups. Issue-ad spending by 501(c)(4) groups is excluded; the FEC doesn't require disclosure of it. See the note below for details.
Total disclosed
$3.7M
Candidate fundraising + independent expenditures (FEC).
Candidate-direct (Schedule A)
$3.7M
Raised by candidate committees themselves.
Outside spending (Schedule E)
$0
No outside spending reported yet.
| Candidate | Raised directly | Outside for | Outside against | Net in corner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Thomas Colonel Chalifoux(R) | $2.3M | — | — | $2.3M |
Darren Soto(D)incumbent | $1.2M | — | — | $1.2M |
Howard Steven Rance(R) | $94K | — | — | $94K |
Justin Story(R) | $42K | — | — | $42K |
Jorge Antonio Malavet(R) | $24K | — | — | $24K |
Gregory Marcus Carter(R) | $15K | — | — | $15K |
Where the money comes from
In-state vs out-of-state
Share of each candidate's itemized individual contributions from donors inside FL versus the rest of the country. Excludes sub-$200 unitemized donations (no geography on file) and PAC money — see note below.
Thomas Colonel Chalifoux(R)100% in-state · $11K itemized
$11K in-state$0 out-of-state
Darren Soto(D)34% in-state · $347K itemized
$119K in-state$228K out-of-state
What's counted, what isn't
Candidate-direct is each campaign's reported receipts on FEC Schedule A — individual contributions plus PAC contributions to the candidate's own committee — through the most recent filing.
Outside spending is independent expenditures on FEC Schedule E: money spent by PACs, super PACs, and party committees for or against a candidate, without legal coordination with the campaign. The committees listed under each candidate are the largest disclosed spenders on either side.
In-state vs out-of-state covers only itemized individual contributions — donations over $200, which are the only ones that carry a contributor address at the FEC. Sub-$200 unitemized donations (often a large share for grassroots campaigns) have no geography on file and are excluded, as is PAC money. So the percentages describe where a candidate's itemized individual money comes from, not where every dollar raised comes from.
Not counted: 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organizations run issue ads that frequently mention candidates by name but aren't classified as express advocacy under FEC rules — they file no Schedule E and don't appear in this breakdown. Press reporting on a race may cite figures that include this dark-money spending; ours doesn't.
About this race page
Candidate roster is sourced from the FEC's active-candidate list for the 2026 cycle. Fundraising totals reflect committee filings through the last reporting period.
Alignment % compares the candidate's extracted policy positions against your quiz answers. Positions are pulled from the candidate's campaign issues page by AI; we save the source quote for each position so you can verify the extraction. Candidates without a campaign issues page show position data pending — we're working through the roster and re-checking stale extractions every 90 days.
News coverage is from the GDELT 2.0 global news feed, filtered to a curated list of national, political, and regional outlets.