An effort by\u00a0Black Democrats to stymie Rep.\u00a0Debbie Wasserman Schultz\u2019s\u00a0(D-Fla.) run for a plurality Black seat is falling apart.<\/p>\n
Four Black candidates\u00a0are eyeing Florida\u2019s new 20th District, where Wasserman Schultz has declared a bid. Black voters make up roughly\u00a040%\u00a0of the district, but DWS will have a clearer path to victory if they don\u2019t coalesce behind a single candidate.<\/p>\n
The four contenders\u00a0are activist\u00a0Elijah Manley,\u00a0former Broward County Mayor\u00a0Dale Holness,\u00a0rapper\u00a0Luther \u201cUncle Luke\u201d Campbell\u00a0and former Rep.\u00a0Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick,\u00a0who is\u00a0under federal indictment<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0resigned<\/a>\u00a0from Congress in April.<\/p>\n At a Monday summit,\u00a0the four candidates discussed uniting behind one Black Democrat. But the meeting ended without a resolution, leaving them bickering over who is to blame.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m done with\u00a0the meetings; it\u2019s time for somebody to be the adult in the room,\u201d Manley told us. \u201cPeople wanted to drag along time and boost their ego and go behind the scenes and play games. And I don\u2019t have time for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Now Manley, Holness\u00a0and Cherfilus-McCormick have all said they plan to run. Florida\u2019s filing deadline\u00a0is today.<\/p>\n Inside the talks.\u00a0The Supreme Court\u2019s\u00a0decision to gut<\/a>\u00a0Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has put Black districts in real danger across the South and made maintaining Black representation in this district even more important.<\/p>\n The four Democrats\u00a0held a vote on whether to step aside to unite behind a single candidate. Everyone agreed except Cherfilus-McCormick, according to sources familiar with the meeting. But it was unclear how a candidate would ultimately be chosen.<\/p>\n Cherfilus-McCormick didn\u2019t\u00a0comment.<\/p>\n Cherfilus-McCormick\u00a0represented the 20th District until she resigned on April 21. Cherfilus-McCormick faces accusations that she improperly funneled millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds into her 2021 congressional campaign. The House Ethics Committee\u00a0was on the brink<\/a>\u00a0of sanctioning her. Cherfilus-McCormick denies the charges, but as the one-time incumbent, she would still have a high name ID.<\/p>\n Manley was\u00a0running against Cherfilus-McCormick before the resignation. Holness previously lost to Cherfilus-McCormick by five votes in 2021.<\/p>\n DWS\u2019 view.\u00a0Many are\u00a0pointing fingers<\/a>\u00a0at Wasserman Schultz. Florida Republicans\u2019 mid-decade redistricting left the veteran Democratic lawmaker without an obvious seat to run for. Manley has accused Wasserman Schultz of undermining Black political power by switching districts.<\/p>\n Wasserman Schultz\u00a0insisted she\u2019s a \u201cBroward girl\u201d who represented nine of the district\u2019s 14 cities in her political career.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot at stake\u00a0in making sure that we have someone with the seniority and the clout and the experience as a senior appropriator, who can bring home resources to the district,\u201d Wasserman Schultz said.<\/p>\n Jeffries\u2019 dilemma.\u00a0The situation has forced House Minority Leader\u00a0Hakeem Jeffries\u00a0into an uncomfortable spot. Jeffries\u2019 job is to protect incumbents, but Wasserman Schultz isn\u2019t the incumbent in this district. While she\u2019s a close leadership ally who serves on the influential Steering and Policy Committee, her candidacy is\u00a0angering<\/a>\u00a0Black Democrats.<\/p>\n Jeffries\u00a0hasn\u2019t endorsed<\/a>\u00a0Wasserman Schultz. Instead, he\u2019s walked a tightrope of\u00a0praising<\/a>\u00a0her as a \u201cvery important member of the leadership team\u201d while noting everyone needs to be sensitive to the \u201cunprecedented Jim Crow-like assault on Black political representation.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Gregory Meeks\u00a0(D-N.Y.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus\u2019 political arm, told us the CBC PAC \u201chas not gotten involved in that race\u201d and declined to criticize DWS.<\/p>\n \u201cI never tell\u00a0anybody else whether they should or shouldn\u2019t run,\u201d Meeks said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An effort by\u00a0Black Democrats to stymie Rep.\u00a0Debbie Wasserman Schultz\u2019s\u00a0(D-Fla.) run for a plurality Black seat is falling apart.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-306173","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\/306173","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=306173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}