Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan will win re-election in Florida's 16th District, beating back a challenge from Democratic nominee David Shapiro, NBC News has projected.
The race for the district on Florida's central Gulf Coast was highlighted by a series of negative television ads released by the six-term incumbent Buchanan and Shapiro, an attorney.
The GOP candidate ran television ads targeting Shapiro even before he had won the Democratic nomination. Shapiro in turn highlighted a more than $1 million yacht loan that Buchanan received from a foreign bank which lobbied for a tax bill the congressman was helping write.
Buchanan is the only member of Florida's congressional delegation to serve on the House's powerful Ways and Means Committee.
President Donald Trump won Buchanan's district by nearly 11 percentage points in the 2016 election.
