Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) has come under fire from black Democrats after she announced she would run in Florida’s 20th Congressional District.
Wasserman Schultz had no choice since the new map eliminated her district.
But the 20th Congressional District is a majority minority district. The majority of the population remains in the newly drawn map.
“About 42% of the voting age population is Black, more than 23% is Hispanic and almost 4% is Asian, while 30% of voting age residents are White,” according to Florida Politics.
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick represented the district until she resigned after the House considered expelling her following her indictment on embezzlement charges.
Congressional candidate Elijah Manley has been campaigning for the 20th District seat since February 2025, when the House Ethics Committee started its investigation into the allegations against Cherfilus-McCormick.
Cherfilus-McCormick filed for re-election and kept her FEC accounts open.
I doubt Manley is thrilled with Cherfilus-McCormick’s choice.
But Manley is furious with Wasserman Schultz:
“I’m not surprised that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is carpetbagging to FL-20, a black opportunity district, abandoning her own district and constituents,” Manley said.“She is no different than the Republicans that are eviscerating black representation across the South. She is everything that’s wrong with the broken unpopular Democratic establishment. This ain’t Weston. I look forward to retiring her from public office permanently.”
Manley isn’t the only one:
Corey Shearer, president of the Broward Black Democratic Caucus, said at a county party meeting Tuesday night that mid-decade redistricting efforts across the South are eliminating districts that have historically elected Black lawmakers.Too many “seats are being lost, and that’s why we’re standing up,” Shearer said. “We want to make sure that we don’t suffer in the consequence. … This is not about white or Jewish or this and that. This is just about Black folks standing up and saying, ‘Hey, we don’t want to lose a seat at the table just because somebody got hurt in another district.’”
Former Broward County commissioner Dale Holness lost primaries in 2021 and 2022 and is running again.
Holness said black voters aren’t happy with Wasserman Schultz: “Folks are upset, and that’s not good for a party at all to see the strongest element, the most loyal element of our party as upset and as angry and uptight as they are.”
But Wasserman Schultz has black friends:
Wasserman Schultz said she has a long record of championing issues important to the African American and Caribbean American communities.“I think my candidacy is an opportunity for unity, not divisiveness,” Wasserman Schultz said. “I know how to represent diverse communities.”“I have been a convener, as a Jewish leader, when there is a crisis, particularly one that affects other communities like the African American community and the Muslim community. I have been the one in our community, the elected official, that has brought diverse leadership together, ethnic and racial and faith communities together, to stand unified,” she said.She was President Barack Obama’s handpicked chair of the Democratic National Committee from May 2011 until July 2016 and was one of the founders and is a current co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Black-Jewish Relations.“I have long and deep relationships with African American leadership in our (Democratic) caucus, and I have been right by their side, fighting to stand up for the values that our community cares about.”
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