One of the most highly coveted congressional seat up that is for grabs in the 2018 mid-term election cycle, is that of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R).

There are already three Republicans vying to replace Ros-Lehtinen- Miami-Dade mayoral candidate and school board member Raquel Regalado and former Doral councilwoman Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera, and Miami-Dade commissioner Bruno Barreiro.

Of the three, it appears as if Barreiro sitting in the race’s pole position. Barreiro is raising money, a lot of it. In his first fundraising quarter, Barreiro managed to raise $175,000, but saw his 2017 third quarter fundraising dollars drop to $42,000, probably because of the recent hurricane that passed through south Florida.

Political fundraising was down across the board because of the storm, so we need to give all candidates a bit of a pass in the months leading up to the new year.

But with all that said, Barreiro’s fundraising numbers have earned him “on the radar” status with the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the group that is supposed to help Republican congressional candidates defeat Democrats.

Being placed on this NRCC list a big step, considering that the candidate needs to show at least $100,000 cash on hand in his or her congressional bank account.

While the NRCC nod is great for fundraising, the group’s influence will only take place after the Republican primary election is decided. The problem for most Republican congressional nominees is that that Florida’s primary election cycle ends a mere two months before the general election does.

In other words, Republican candidates who win the primary election have only a month or so to set up a plan of attack against his or her Democratic opponent.

Regardless, Barreiro is now the hands-on favorite to win the GOP primary race to replace Ros-Lehtinen.