Mike Beltran’s Voting Record Deserves a Closer Look

Former Florida legislator Mike Beltran wants to represent Hillsborough County in Congress. Before voters give him that responsibility, they ought to know what he did with the power he had in Tallahassee.

Let’s begin with local control. Beltran often supported laws that limited what Hillsborough County and Tampa could decide on their own. These votes impacted tenant protections, development fees, contractor licensing, and even Tampa’s ability to regulate tree removal.

The Live Local Act is an example, and Beltran opposed the original 2023 law but voted for its 2024 expansion. That expansion further restricted local zoning authority, allowing qualifying developments to bypass certain local rules on density, height, and building size. Hillsborough County is having to spend money on a lawsuit challenging the law’s constitutionality.

It seems Tallahassee believes it knows more about Hillsborough’s neighborhoods than the people who live here and the officials they elect. Now think about what it would mean to give someone with that voting record a say in how much control Washington should have over local communities.

Beltran’s voting record covers more than just local government issues.

Nursing homes: In 2022, Beltran voted for HB 1239, reducing the minimum required certified nursing assistant care by 20% per resident per day for people who often need help with the most basic daily tasks. The law allowed other staff to count toward overall care requirements, but it also let nursing homes provide less direct nursing assistant care.

Immigration enforcement: In 2022, Beltran voted for SB 96, which set up Florida’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund with an initial $500 million. Later, the DeSantis administration used this fund for immigration enforcement, including operations linked to Alligator Alcatraz. State records show $564 million spent on immigration enforcement in the 2025–26 fiscal year. Beltran was not in office when this money was spent, but he helped create the fund that made it possible.

Public education: Beltran supported major expansions of private-school vouchers in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2023. These programs now send a lot of public money to private schools, while districts like Hillsborough have to manage schools, staff, and services with less funding as enrollment changes.

He also voted for HB 1259 in 2023, which requires districts to share more of their locally raised school construction and maintenance taxes with charter schools. By 2027–28, this will reach 100% of the calculated charter allocation. That means less of these local funds will remain for district-run, taxpayer-owned school buildings.

And Beltran decided he was better qualified than certified teachers to tell teachers what they could say.

He backed laws that limited classroom instruction about race and discrimination, made it easier to challenge school books, and restricted what teacher preparation programs could cover. In 2022, he supported HB 7, which set new limits on lessons about race, including how schools discuss racial responsibility and oppression.

Florida law still says Black history must be taught, including topics like slavery and racial discrimination. However, the law Beltran supported also limits how teachers can talk about these subjects. It seems teaching history is fine, as long as Tallahassee approves the way the story is told.

Reproductive rights: Beltran helped introduce Florida’s 15-week abortion restriction in 2022 and voted for the six-week restriction in 2023. These votes reduced access to abortion care for women in Florida.

Meanwhile, Congresswoman Kathy Castor has focused on bringing federal resources to the communities she serves.

In 2024, Castor’s office reported securing $1.47 billion in federal grants for the Tampa Bay region by working with local governments and community partners. For fiscal year 2026, she brought in another $19.6 million for 15 community projects, such as school programs, affordable housing, transportation, and infrastructure.

Mike Beltran’s legislative record gives voters a lot to consider: limits on local government, lower minimum staffing in nursing homes, restrictions on classroom instruction, abortion limits, and repeated votes moving taxpayer education funds to private and charter schools.

These are decisions he made while representing Floridians in Tallahassee. They matter when thinking about the choices he might make in Washington.

Sources
– Florida Senate — HB 1417 (2023), Residential Tenancies and State Preemption
– Hillsborough County — Live Local Act, Implementation and Constitutional Challenge: https://hcfl.gov/businesses/land-development/live-local-act
– Florida Senate — SB 328 (2024), Live Local Act Revisions
– Florida Senate — HB 337 (2021), Impact Fee Restrictions
– Florida Senate — HB 1239 (2022), Nursing Home Staffing Requirements
– Florida House — HB 1239 (2022), Official House Voting Record
– Florida Senate — SB 96 (2022), Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund
– Florida House — SB 96 (2022), Official Voting Record
– WLRN — Florida Disaster Fund Spending on Immigration Enforcement, July 21, 2026: https://www.wlrn.org/immigration/2026-07-21/florida-disaster-fund-spent-more-on-immigration-than-all-2025-missions-combined
– Florida Senate — SB 7070 (2019), Family Empowerment Scholarship Program
– Florida Senate — HB 7067 (2020), School Scholarship Expansion
– Florida Senate — HB 7045 (2021), School Scholarship Programs
– Florida House — HB 1 (2023), Universal School Voucher Expansion and Beltran’s Recorded Vote
– Florida Senate — HB 1259 (2023), Charter School Capital Outlay Funding
– Florida House — HB 1259 (2023), Official Voting Record
– Florida Senate — HB 7 (2022), Individual Freedom Act, Restrictions on Classroom Instruction About Race and Discrimination
– Florida Senate — HB 1467 (2022), School Library and Instructional Materials
– Florida Senate — HB 1069 (2023), Classroom Instruction and Instructional Materials
– Florida Senate — HB 5 (2022), 15-Week Abortion Restriction
– Florida Senate — SB 300 (2023), Six-Week Abortion Restriction
– U.S. Representative Kathy Castor — December 23, 2024, Report on $1.47 Billion in Federal Grants Secured for Tampa Bay: https://castor.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=404754