WASHINGTON — Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) was nominated for a 12th House term Tuesday, despite being forced to compete for votes in a majority-minority district.
With most of the expected vote in, Wasserman Schultz, 59, had 45.6% support in the 20th Congressional District’s Democratic primary. Former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness had 22.9%, progressive activist Elijah Manley had 13.9%, indicted former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick had 9.2%, and former 2 Live Crew rapper Luther Campbell had 8.5%.
Wasserman Schultz, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee, opted to run in Florida’s 20th Congressional District — which is more than 60% black and Hispanic — after state Republicans reconfigured her former 25th District into a GOP stronghold that would have gone for President Trump by about 10 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.
Some Democrats had hoped Wasserman Schultz would use her personal popularity and incumbency advantage to try and hold the 25th District.
However, the two-decade House veteran picked the 20th — which covers parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties — after the April resignation of former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) following her indictment this past November on federal fraud charges.
Cherfilus-McCormick, 47, is accused of stealing $5 million in COVID-19 relief funds meant for her family’s healthcare company and laundering them to her congressional campaign.
The former congresswoman, who faces up to 53 years in prison if convicted of all charges, has pleaded not guilty and maintains her innocence.
While Wasserman Schultz was endorsed by mainstream Democratic organizations like the Broward County teachers’ union, the Giffords pro-gun control group, and Planned Parenthood Action Fund — as well as former Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) declined to back her due to what he called “the sensitivities of the moment in terms of an unprecedented Jim Crow-like assault on black political representation.”
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Manley, a self-described “Democratic socialist” endorsed by the pro-Bernie Sanders group Our Revolution as well as popular children’s educator Ms. Rachel, went further, telling CNN Monday: “I think it’s cynical for the congresswoman to carpetbag into a district and try to take away black representation in a split field.”
In the end, attempts by Wasserman Schultz’s four rivals to coalesce around a single minority candidate failed, resulting in the quartet splitting the vote Tuesday night.
Wasserman Schultz will be heavily favored against Republican nominee Brent Anderson, a local businessman, in the Nov. 3 general election.
