West has only been a congressman for a dozen weeks; it is unusual to draw announced opposition so early.
Democrat Lois Frankel, the mayor of West Palm Beach, announced last Monday that she will challenge West for the seat. A week earlier, Fort Lauderdale businessman and Democrat Patrick Murphy announced his candidacy for the seat.
West defeated two-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Joe Klein by 54 percent to 46 percent in the 2010 election. Prior to Klein, Republican Congressman Clay Shaw held the seat for a quarter-century.
West is one of a group of Republicans the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has already begun targeting in ads on radio stations and web sites. His extreme positions are seen as making him vulnerable. On the other, ultra-rightists have been supporting him strongly with some pushing him as a candidate for the US Senate.
West has made a point of attacking Islam and Muslins since his campaign last fall. Last month he faced heat over comments directed at Rep. Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, one of two Muslims in Congress. West said Ellison represents “the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established.”
The congressman later defended those comments in a town hall when pressed on the issue by Nezar Hamze, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Miami.
“I will always defend your right to practice a free religion under the First Amendment,” West told Hamze. “But what you must understand, if I am speaking the truth, I am not going to stop speaking the truth. The truth is not subjective.”
