The Florida scion of an anti-communist political family, he served in the House for 18 years at a time when Cuban Americans exerted peak influence on U.S. policies.

Forced into exile as a boy, the Florida Republican became a voice for democracy in his native Cuba and a committed champion of immigrants.

Balart, a Cuban-American Republican politician who defended immigrants and fiercely opposed Fidel Castro’s regime to help restore democracy in his native Cuba while serving for almost two decades in Congress representing South Florida,