U.S. House, District 17
Represents Florida's 17th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives; votes on federal laws and spending. Term: 2 years.
Partly verified. Either the November opponent could not be confirmed from available sources, or only a few positions are documented. Confirm the full candidate list on your county sample ballot; unknown positions are shown as such.
How we verified who is on the ballot
Roster from WSLR (Matt Montavon wins Congressional District 17 primary; Steube unopposed in GOP primary) and Ballotpedia. No NPA or write-in candidate was identified in snippets; absence unconfirmed.
Candidates
Greg Steube
Greg Steube has represented Florida's 17th District since January 2019 and previously served in the Florida House and Senate; he sits on the House Ways and Means Committee. He was unopposed in the Aug. 18, 2026 Republican primary. Under the 2026 map the district gives up inland eastern Sarasota County and takes in mor…
Matthew Montavon
Matthew (Matt) Montavon grew up in Indiana, served two years in the Peace Corps and spent 27 years with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, where he helped run a department with a $50 million budget; he also worked in local-government planning. Now retired in suburban Sarasota, he has been ac…
Side-by-side on the major issues
Each row is a statement. The chips show how each candidate's stated positions or record relate to that statement. Expand a row to read the evidence and sources. "No public position found" means we could not find a statement or record on the topic, not that the candidate has none.
| Issue | Greg Steube Republican | Matthew Montavon Democratic |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Strongly agrees· based on record Steube voted for H.R. 1 (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) on final passage in July 2025. The law made the 2017 individual tax-rate cuts permanent and added new deductions while reducing projected federal spending on Medicaid and SNAP. | No public position found |
| Housing affordabilityGovernment should do more to make housing affordable (subsidies, zoning changes, rent measures). | No public position found | Leans agree· stated position Platform includes addressing affordable housing and disaster recovery; says affordability is his top priority, citing that 47% of district residents cannot meet daily living expenses. |
| ImmigrationImmigration enforcement should be stricter, including large-scale deportation of people in the country illegally. | Strongly agrees· based on record Steube voted for the Laken Riley Act (mandatory federal detention of unauthorized immigrants arrested for theft and certain other offenses) in January 2025 and for H.R. 1, which appropriated funds for border-wall construction, Border Patrol hiring and expanded immigration detention and removal operations. Sources: S.5 - Laken Riley Act (119th Congress) - Congress.gov (2025-01-29) · House Roll Call 23 (S. 5, Laken Riley Act, Jan. 22, 2025) -… (2025-01-22) · H.R.1 - One Big Beautiful Bill Act (119th Congress) - Congr… (2025-07-04) · House Roll Call 190 (final passage of H.R. 1, July 3, 2025)… (2025-07-03) | Leans disagree· stated position Says 'some enforcement at the border' is needed but opposes deporting people, including children, who have lived in the U.S. for a long time; supports a comprehensive pathway to citizenship, limits on enforcement abuses and reform of ICE detention practices. He co-founded the Suncoast Immigration Justice Coalition. |
| AbortionAbortion should be legal in most cases (Florida's six-week ban should be repealed or loosened). | Strongly disagrees· stated position Steube's House website calls him 'a staunch defender of the right to life,' says taxpayer dollars should not fund abortion in any circumstance, supports keeping the Hyde Amendment in spending bills, and describes his SHIELD Act, which would require schools to notify parents before distributing abortion-related information to students. | Strongly agrees· stated position Montavon's issues page says reproductive-health decisions should be between a woman and her medical provider and that Congress should ensure birth control, abortion and comprehensive reproductive care are accessible and affordable. |
| GunsGun laws should be stricter (keep the red-flag law and the age-21 purchase rule; expand background checks) rather than looser (permitless or open carry, lower purchase age). | No public position found | Strongly agrees· stated position Calls for banning civilian use of assault weapons, universal background checks, state licensing, and enforcing and expanding red-flag laws, while saying hunters and sportsmen should still be able to buy guns. |
| Health careGovernment should expand its role in health coverage (expand Medicaid in Florida, extend Affordable Care Act subsidies). | Leans disagree· based on record Steube voted for H.R. 1, which added work-reporting requirements and more frequent eligibility checks for Medicaid expansion enrollees and reduced projected federal Medicaid spending. No statement on expanding Medicaid in Florida or extending ACA subsidies was found. | Strongly agrees· stated position Supports universal health care and says he would prefer a government-supported single-payer system but is open to private options. |
| Social Security & MedicareSocial Security and Medicare benefits must be protected from any cuts, even if that requires more revenue. | No public position found | Leans agree· stated position Lists 'protecting Social Security and Medicare' among his platform planks; financing details were not captured. |
| Education & school choicePublic money should follow students to private, charter or home schools (universal school vouchers). | No public position found | No public position found |
| Environment & waterProtecting water quality, conservation land and climate resilience should take priority even if it slows development or raises costs. | No public position found | Leans agree· stated position Lists the environment as a platform priority alongside disaster recovery. |
| Elections & votingVoting should be made easier (mail voting, drop boxes, restoring voting rights) rather than adding new restrictions. | Leans disagree· based on record Steube voted for the SAVE Act (H.R. 22), which would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. No statement on mail voting or drop boxes was found. | No public position found |
| Crime & policingCriminal penalties should be tougher and police funding increased, rather than emphasizing reform and rehabilitation. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Gender identity lawsFlorida's laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors and classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity should remain in place. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Energy & utilitiesGovernment should promote renewable energy and tighten oversight of utility rate increases, even at the expense of fossil-fuel production. | Strongly disagrees· based on record Voted for H.R. 1 (2025), which phased out most Inflation Reduction Act clean-energy tax credits and expanded oil and gas leasing. | No public position found |
| Tariffs & tradeTariffs on imported goods are good for the American economy. | Leans agree· stated position Steube has said the president should be free to use tariffs as he sees fit and that the House should support him; no statement on tariffs' overall economic effect was found. Sources: Greg Steube - Ballotpedia | Leans disagree· stated position At a WSLR-covered forum Montavon said President Trump is implementing tariffs that are hurting businesses. |
| UkraineThe U.S. should continue military aid to Ukraine. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Trump administrationI approve of the direction of the Trump administration. | Leans agree· stated position Steube has said the House should support the president on tariffs 'however he wants to do that' and has pressed for House action following President Trump's marijuana-rescheduling order. | Strongly disagrees· stated position At a candidate forum Montavon blamed the Trump administration for a military conflict he said Congress did not want and called for funding cuts to address executive overreach; he also criticized the administration's tariffs. |
| VeteransExpanding VA services and veterans' benefits should be a top priority. | No public position found | No public position found |
Where they sit on the map
Each candidate is placed by the average of their documented stances. It is a summary of the table above, not an extra judgment.
How the axes are computed
Each axis is the average of a candidate's coded stances (+2 to −2) on a fixed set of statements, so it comes straight from the documented positions and nothing else. A candidate needs at least three documented statements on an axis to be placed.
Economic issues (toward "Smaller government (lower taxes, less spending)"): Taxes & spending (agree), Property taxes (agree), Health care (disagree), Housing affordability (disagree), Property insurance (disagree), Energy & utilities (disagree), Social Security & Medicare (disagree).
Social & legal issues (toward "Conservative side of the statements"): Immigration (agree), Abortion (disagree), Guns (disagree), Education & school choice (agree), Elections & voting (disagree), Crime & policing (agree), Gender identity laws (agree), Marijuana (disagree), Environment & water (disagree), Trump administration (agree).
| Candidate | Economic issues | Social & legal issues |
|---|---|---|
| Greg Steube | 1.67 (3 statements) | 1.50 (4 statements) |
| Matthew Montavon | -1.33 (3 statements) | -1.60 (5 statements) |
Other issues the candidates have raised
Priorities each candidate has brought up on their own, beyond the major-issue list above.
Greg Steube
- Marijuana rescheduling (H.R. 4963) — Sponsors a bill to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III within 60 days of enactment to allow medical research.
- SHIELD Act (parental notification on abortion information in schools) — Introduced legislation requiring local education agencies to notify parents before distributing abortion-related information to students and barring abortion providers from distributing such material on school grounds.
- Hyde Amendment — Supports including the Hyde Amendment (no federal funding of abortion) in spending legislation and opposed Biden-era Defense Department abortion-travel policies.
- Ways and Means Committee work — Serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, which handles tax, trade, Social Security and Medicare policy.
Matthew Montavon
- Affordability as top priority — Says 47% of district residents are not making enough to meet daily living expenses and puts affordability first.
- Disaster recovery — Platform pairs affordable housing with faster disaster recovery for the hurricane-prone district.
- Immigrant advocacy — Co-founded the Suncoast Immigration Justice Coalition and is active in the local Democratic Hispanic Caucus.
- Executive overreach / war powers — Called for Congress to use funding cuts to check what he described as executive overreach in military action.