Lauren Baer has jumped into the fight to unseat U.S. Rep. Brian Mast in Florida’s District 18, expected to be one of the most competitive congressional races in the country next year.

Baer, an attorney and Palm Beach Gardens native, served as a senior policy advisor to former U.S. Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. She was also a senior policy advisor to Samantha Power, who was U.S. ambassador the United Nations during the Obama administration.

Baer’s extended family owns and operates Baer’s Furniture, which has been doing business in South Florida for more than seven decades. Her entry into the race comes as another would-be candidate, Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg, ended speculation that he might be induced to challenge Mast.

"I’m focused on the opioid epidemic and a number of important issues as State Attorney, and so I have no intention of running for any other office in 2018," Aronberg told The Palm Beach Post.

Baer is the second Democrat in the race against Mast, a Republican from Palm City.

She joins Pam Keith, a U.S. Navy veteran and attorney who made an unsuccessful run to win her party’s nomination for U.S. Senate last year. Keith lost the Democratic primary for the Senate seat to Mast’s predecessor in District 18, Patrick Murphy, who mounted his own unsuccessful quest to defeat U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

Murphy, who is serving as a fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute of Policy and Public Service this fall, praised Baer Monday while taking a shot at Keith, a black woman who once described him as "a millionaire, ex-Republican white dude."

"A lot of Democrats will be excited to see Lauren in this race," Murphy said. "She has impressive foreign policy credentials and deep ties to the district. Pam Keith has turned off a lot of people with her negative approach to politics."

Keith did not fire back, saying: "I will always admire and respect Patrick’s service to this district. I volunteered for, and supported him when he was my Congressman. While he and I had a spirited primary battle last year, I am proud to have never engaged in baseless mud-slinging against him or Alan Grayson."

Keith said voters in District 18 "are extremely excited to have a passionate advocate for our values, who is not afraid to confront the absurdities of the current administration. The voters will decide which candidate best represents their voice in D.C., and I sincerely look forward to making the case that I am she. After all, the goal is not to pick the least offensive candidate. The goal is to pick the candidate most able to engage, excite and energize voters to defeat Brian Mast."

Baer told The Palm Beach Post Monday that she wants to be that candidate.

If she wins the seat, Baer would make history as the first woman to be in a same-sex marriage while also serving in Congress. U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts was the first member of Congress to be in a same-sex marriage.

Baer is married to Emily Myers, an attorney who worked in the enforcement division of the Federal Election Commission. The couple has a baby daughter, Serena, whom Baer referenced in explaining why she wants to win a seat in Congress.

"I am not running as a gay candidate," Baer said. "I’m running as a candidate who is gay. We share the same values as other folks, have the same concerns for our daughter as other folks have for their children."

Those concerns, Baer said, center on making sure district residents have a strong economy, a healthy environment and affordable health care.

Mast has pushed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, voting earlier this year for repeal legislation that critics say would leave more Americans without health care and empower insurance companies to charge people more if they have pre-existing medical conditions.

Like other Republicans, Mast has argued that ACA, frequently referred to as Obamacare, isn’t working, has raised insurance premiums and is limiting access to health care. Many of Mast’s constituents have disagreed with that assessment, packing town hall meetings to excoriate him for backing repeal legislation.

Baer, noting her mother’s health problems in the wake of a 1992 car accident, described Mast’s vote as "cruel."

Republican repeal efforts, she said, "appear to just be slap dash efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act at any cost. I don’t think it’s right to play with the lives of Americans to score political points."

Unlike others in his party, who simply stopped having town hall meetings when it became clear they’d face angry voters, Mast hasn’t shied away from such meetings. Nor has he wavered in his support for President Trump, whom Democrats thought would weigh down the prospects of members of Congress like Mast.

Democrats tried to lash Trump to Mast last year, but the strategy didn’t work. Mast, a U.S. Army veteran who lost both legs during an explosion in Afghanistan, defeated a wealthy business man, Randy Perkins, to capture the District 18 seat.

That seat will again be a focal point next year as Democrats try to recapture a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and Republican fight to maintain that majority. District 18, which includes northern Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, is a rarity among U.S. congressional districts in that it does not skew heavily in favor of one party, heightening the hopes — and the stakes — for both.

Mast’s spokesman, Brad Stewart, said the congressman is not yet focused on the race.

"Congressman Mast’s focus is on working to serve the people in our community, including hurricane recovery efforts and preventing harmful algal blooms, not on partisan politics and elections that are over a year away," Stewart said.

Money will likely be a big factor in the race. An FEC quarterly filing period ended on Sept. 30, but the candidates have not tallied up their contributions.

Mast has been relied upon to help raise money for fellow Republicans, previewing what is expected to be a strength of his campaign. Keith said her campaign haul so far is "well into the six figures."

"We’re very pleased," she said.

Baer’s campaign said she has raised more than $250,000, including more than $200,000 since her official filing as a candidate on September 12.

Former colleagues predicted Baer will have little difficulty moving from policy advisor to elected official.

Jon Finer, chief of staff and director of public policy during Kerry’s tenure as secretary of state, said Baer successfully pushed to establish the position of special envoy to protect and advance the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people throughout the world.

"She has committed her life to human rights," Finer said.

Another former colleague, Jake Sullivan, a senior advisor to the U.S. government during its nuclear negotiations with Iran, said Baer won’t get lost in policy and forget the people of District 18.

"Lauren is one of those unique people who can work on issues on global levels without ever forgetting where she came from," Sullivan said. "She doesn’t think of policy as numbers on a piece of paper or as part of a multi-point plan. She’s somebody uniquely suited to public service."