Debbie Wasserman Schultz Wins Primary — This Time In Florida’s 20th District

MIAMI — Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has won the Democratic nomination for Florida’s 20th District, prevailing in a brutal, crowded primary after jumping into a district whose seat had been represented by a Black lawmaker for more than three decades.

Wasserman Schultz made the decision to run in Florida’s 20th District after her current seat was splintered by new congressional maps pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis under rare mid-decade redistricting. It’s a solidly blue seat which is currently vacant after its former officeholder, Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, resigned under scandal.

Wasserman Schultz faced criticism from Democratic rivals and even some House colleagues about her decision to run in the district. And it came as the Congressional Black Caucus warned that as many as 19 of its members could be out of a job come November given efforts across the South to weaken Black voting power through redistricting, in part after the Supreme Court dismantled key provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

But she also had high-profile allies supporting her, pointing not just to her years of accomplishments in Florida but also to her record of elevating Black staffers and her policies supporting issues important to Black communities, including on voting rights and Black maternal mortality.

Wasserman Schultz held a fundraising edge in the contest and ran an aggressive campaign focused on touting her experience and seniority. She’s a co-chair on Democrats’ steering committee, which helps set the party’s agenda, and a senior member on the appropriations committee that helps direct federal spending. That resume positions her to deliver resources, attention and policy wins to the district, especially if Democrats regain the House majority in November.

Wasserman Schultz lives in Weston, which is in Florida’s newly carved 22nd District that’s now more competitive for a Republican and stretches 100 miles across the state to Marco Island. She said throughout her campaign that it was important for her to run in Broward County, where both District 20 and Weston are located, because it remains a blue bastion in a state where Democrats have lost significant ground over the last decade. She also stressed her personal connections to Broward, a county she has always represented through various redistricting efforts and feels most tied to.

Wasserman Schultz, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee, is also expected to be elected to a 12th term in the Nov. 4 general election given its political leanings.

Cherfilus-McCormick, who was running to regain her seat, left Congress amid a House Ethics Committee verdict that found her guilty of stealing federal campaign funds and routing them to her campaign.

The only Haitian member of Congress, Cherfilus-McCormick has denied the charges against her and faces a criminal trial in Miami early next year. This period hasn’t been the only time the district was left without representation. After the late Rep. Alcee Hastings died in 2021, DeSantis waited almost a month to schedule the special election, setting a timeline that left the seat without a House member for nearly 10 months.

Others competing in the primary included Broward County Mayor Dale Holness, civil right activist Elijah Manley and Luther Campbell, the community activist, philanthropist and youth football coach known by his stage name “Uncle Luke” for his time as a member of 2 Live Crew. Their effort to unite behind a single candidate to try to help ensure the election of a Black representative fell flat.

The other candidates, all of whom are Black, argued the seat should be represented by someone who shares the experiences of Black voters and accused Wasserman Schultz of being fixated on staying in power. Rivals in the race said they worried Wasserman Schultz was counting on the county’s significant population of African American and Caribbean American voters to split their allegiances, drawing an advantage to her candidacy.