ORLANDO, Fla. _ Liberal firebrand Alan Grayson is back, returning to politics to run for his old seat in Congress against Democratic U.S. Rep. Darren Soto.
Grayson had been considering several options for his potential return to Washington, but he told the Orlando Sentinel he chose the district in Osceola, Orange and Polk counties that he represented for four years, because "that's where people want me."
"Our country is facing a crisis," Grayson said. President Donald Trump "is trampling on our democracy. Voters deserve to have somebody fighting against that."
The decision kicks off what could be a heated District 9 battle for the Democratic nomination between Grayson, a progressive firebrand who garnered both controversy and a national profile in his six years in Congress, and Soto, the first Florida congressman of Puerto Rican descent, who has been an advocate for the community in the wake of Hurricane Maria and the influx of evacuees to Central Florida.
Asked about taking on Soto, Grayson said, "I wouldn't put it that way. I'm running for my old seat. ... That seat doesn't belong to anybody in particular. It's up to the voters."
Grayson, 60, who has already made one return to Congress in 2012 after losing to U.S. Rep. Dan Webster two years earlier, has been raising money since the moment he lost the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in August 2016.
Since leaving office in January 2017, Grayson has raised more than $500,000, giving him almost $700,000 in cash on hand _ though he still has debts and loans of more than $2 million from past races, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Soto has raised about $570,000 and has $364,000 cash on hand.
Grayson had filed to run against Webster in District 11 but said from the beginning that was only a stand-in until he made a final decision before the May 4 qualifying deadline. Candidates for Congress aren't required to live in the district they run in.
While there had been speculation he could run in District 15, which includes Lake County and where Republican U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross is retiring this year, Grayson said his old seat was the best fit. And he had no issue with running against Soto in a district with a large Puerto Rican population.
"I don't anticipate any problems," Grayson said. "I have strong support across the board, in the Anglo community, African American community and the Hispanic community as well. I could say my support (in the Hispanic community) is stronger than his."
He cited his work to keep schools open in the district, open a Veterans Administration hospital, and the increased number of Hispanics who got health care coverage during his terms in office.
Grayson also attacked Soto from the left, saying his record on guns, which included an A rating from the NRA when he was a state legislator in 2010, "disturbed" him.
"Soto has also gone on record that he's open-minded about eliminating Social Security," Grayson said, referring to Soto's answer to the West Orlando News in 2016 that he would consider "phasing out benefits or eliminating them altogether to assure long-term solvency."
Grayson has long been a controversial figure, even within his own party.
In April 2016, a House Office of Congressional Ethics report said there was "a substantial reason to believe" he violated House ethics rules in connection with his hedge fund and other actions. Grayson has called the report "nonsense."
He also got into an argument with a Politico reporter in 2016 after being asked about allegations of domestic abuse by his former partner, which Grayson has vigorously denied. The incident was one reason PolitiFact fired him as a contributor in March after a backlash from journalists, its editor said, though Grayson's active campaign also played a role.
Former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called for Grayson to lose the 2016 Senate primary to then-U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy. Murphy defeated Grayson 59 to 18 percent in the primary, but went on to lose to Republican incumbent Marco Rubio.
The Democratic primary for District 9 is scheduled for Aug. 28. Sean Allen Buchan and 2016 candidate Wayne Liebnitzky are running in the Republican primary.
