WASHINGTON \u2014 Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., a former teacher and principal known in Congress for her colorful outfits and matching hats, said Friday she will not seek re-election this fall.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis has been a journey, but it\u2019s time. It\u2019s time. And I know all of you are wondering, \u2018What is the congresswoman going to do?\u2019 Well, the congresswoman is going to not seek another term,\u201d Wilson said at a ceremony where a street in the Miami area was named in her honor. The street is next to a school that is also named after her.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven leather wears out,\u201d she said, adding that she would not retire but instead travel the country to promote her 5000 Role Models program aimed at helping boys and young men of color.<\/p>\n
She had first announced her plans in an interview with the Miami Herald <\/a>that published on Friday. <\/p>\n Wilson is the 60th House lawmaker<\/a> this cycle to announce they are either retiring from Congress or running for higher office.<\/p>\n At 83, Wilson had been part of a cadre of senior lawmakers<\/a> in their 80s and 90s who had said they were running for another term in 2026 \u2014 defying voters who are clamoring for generational change among the nation\u2019s leaders.<\/p>\n But Wilson recently underwent eye surgery and had missed a month\u2019s worth of votes<\/a> this spring as she recovered. In the GOP\u2019s redistricting push this month, her Miami congressional district lost its coastal areas but remained deep blue, meaning she almost certainly would have been re-elected to a ninth term.<\/p>\n She told the Miami Herald that she strategically waited to announce her retirement until after the new maps were established so that her district would not be targeted.<\/p>\n \u201cI figured if I announced that I was retiring, what would the Legislature and the governor do? … Would District 24 be an easy target because Frederica is no longer there? I\u2019m a strong candidate,\u201d she told the newspaper. \u201cWith me not here, would that weaken the survival of District 24?\u201d<\/p>\n The filing deadline to run in the Aug. 18 primary to replace her is just a few weeks away, on June 12.<\/p>\n A young activist during the Civil Rights Movement, Wilson heard the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. give a \u201crousing speech<\/a>\u201d when she was a student at Fisk University, and she went on to pursue a career in education. She began as a public school teacher and later became a principal in Miami Gardens; the school, years later, was renamed Dr. Frederica S. Wilson\/Skyway Elementary School in her honor.<\/p>\n \u201cA street isn\u2019t enough. A street just isn\u2019t enough,\u201d Miami-Dade County Commissioner Oliver Gilbert III, the former mayor of Miami Gardens, said at Friday\u2019s dedication ceremony. \u201cThere were young boys who actually crossed this street, went into that building, when they went in, they didn\u2019t have promise. When they came out, because something she imagined into existence, they actually had a future. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you talk about naming the street, naming the school, naming the library, what we\u2019re saying is we\u2019re not just naming it for a person, we\u2019re naming it for their deeds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n From there, she was elected to the Miami-Dade County School Board, the Florida state House and Senate in Tallahassee and finally to the U.S. House in 2010. A member of both the Congressional Black and Progressive caucuses, Wilson was a staunch ally of President Barack Obama and dedicated her time in Congress to try to improve the lives of young Black men and women.<\/p>\n In 2020, she teamed with then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on legislation to create an independent government commission to study the social status of Black men and boys. President Donald Trump signed the legislation into law.<\/p>\n But she clashed repeatedly with Trump over the years, including in a 2017 disagreement about his conversation with the pregnant widow of an American soldier killed in Niger. Wilson said she was riding in the car with the widow when Trump called to offer his condolences. Wilson slammed Trump after, she said, he told the woman her husband \u201cknew what he signed up for<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump fired back on social media<\/a>, accusing the \u201cwacky\u201d congresswoman of lying and \u201csecretly\u201d listening in on his conversation. Wilson said she skipped votes the following week after she received threats<\/a> for criticizing Trump.<\/p>\n During her time in Washington, Wilson was one of the more recognizable members of Congress. She could easily be spotted on the House floor sporting one of her brightly colored suits and matching beaded cowboy hats.<\/p>\n At Friday\u2019s ceremony, where Miami officials lined up to praise Wilson, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava talked about how Wilson has been an inspiration for women of all ages. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat you do is not just for the young men, and you talk about that, it\u2019s for the young women, but it\u2019s not for the young ones. Some of us that need that little lift, that little inspiration. You give it to us, and you are not sparing. You make sure that you reach out and touch people and give them that extra little push, that little, \u2018You can do it, girl,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n Levine Cava said this was not the end of the road for Wilson\u2019s service: \u201cWe might give you a little break, but we\u2019re going to be calling on you, because what you have done for these young people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., a former teacher and principal known in Congress for her colorful outfits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-290004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Rep.-elect](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/260526-frederica-wilson-florida-mn-1600-24a3d9.jpg\")
Wilson, then a congresswoman-elect, arrives on Capitol Hill for new member orientation on Nov. 15, 2010.Alex Wong \/ Getty Images file<\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/260526-frederica-wilson-mn-1605-8214f6.jpg\")
Wilson greets President Barack Obama at Miami International Airport in 2012.Carolyn Kaster \/ AP file<\/p>\n