Four Black Democrats running for Congress in the same South Florida district met last week for a highly unusual discussion. Should three of them drop out and rally around a consensus Black candidate in the Democratic primary against Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz?
Ms. Wasserman Schultz, who is white, had announced a few weeks earlier that she would run in the safely Democratic 20th Congressional District in Broward County, after Republican state lawmakers redrew Florida’s congressional map and eliminated her seat.
But the 20th District is historically Black and has elected a Black representative for decades. The Black Democrats running felt affronted by Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s decision to enter the race, especially with a spate of Republican gerrymanders across the South this spring almost certain to reduce Black representation in the House.
The race to redistrict ahead of the midterm elections has forced Democratic candidates in Republican-led states to make rushed decisions about where to run based on cold electoral math, as the number of winnable districts has shrunk. In Florida — a state that sends 28 representatives to Congress, and where 43 percent of voters cast ballots in 2024 for Kamala Harris — the Republican-drawn map cut the number of Democratic-leaning seats from eight to four.
Nowhere in the state has Democrats’ dilemma been more evident than in South Florida. Ahead of Friday’s candidate-qualifying deadline, Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s announcement turned Democrat against Democrat.
The 20th District includes most of Broward County’s African American and Caribbean American communities. So the four Black Democrats huddled last Monday, thinking that, if they consolidated behind one of them, he or she might have a chance of defeating Ms. Wasserman Schultz, an 11-term incumbent and a former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee who has far out-raised them all.
In the end, though, they could not agree on who among them should remain in the race.
“Everybody thinks that they can be the one who will win,” said Dale V.C. Holness, a former Broward County mayor.
Mr. Holness and three others — Luther Campbell, known as Uncle Luke, from the hip-hop group 2 Live Crew; Elijah Manley, a teacher and political activist; and former Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick — all qualified to run. They remained in the race knowing that they would likely split the Black vote, improving Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s odds of winning.
Under the new map, only one majority-Black district will remain in Florida: the 24th, which is based in Miami-Dade County and safely Democratic. The incumbent, Representative Frederica Wilson, announced her retirement last month.
The 20th District, with its plurality of Black voters, can still elect a Black representative, the Florida Legislative Black Caucus noted in a statement last month that called Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s decision “disheartening.”
“This district was established to remedy decades of racial exclusion and to ensure that Black communities have the opportunity to elect leaders who truly reflect their experiences and needs,” the statement said.
The discomfort has stretched to Washington. When asked this month about the landscape in the 20th District, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic minority leader, who typically endorses incumbents, said he had not “made a decision” in the race.
“Everybody has a right to run where they see fit,” he said, praising Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s “strong record of accomplishment.” He added, however, that the country was experiencing “an unprecedented Jim Crow-like assault on Black political representation.”
The Supreme Court issued a decision in April weakening a key provision of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, finding that Louisiana lawmakers had unconstitutionally relied on race when they created a majority-Black district. The decision set off a rush to redraw maps in Southern states.
Last week, the House Democratic Caucus, led by Mr. Jeffries, appointed Ms. Wasserman Schultz to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In a statement, Ms. Wasserman Schultz thanked her colleagues for “this vote of confidence.” She has blamed President Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis and their fellow Republicans in the Florida Legislature for eliminating four Democratic-leaning districts. Two are in Broward County — hers and that of Representative Jared Moskowitz — while two more are in the Tampa and Orlando areas.
Voting and civil rights groups have challenged the map in court, saying it violates a state ban on partisan gerrymandering. A judge declined to temporarily block the map from taking effect, so it will stand for this year’s elections.
“I’m just as angry” as other Democrats, Ms. Wasserman Schultz said in an interview last month. “DeSantis and Trump have intentionally dismantled Broward County’s power.”
She added that, over her 34-year political career, she had represented nine of the 14 cities in the district.
“I know the people, and the people know me,” she said. “It was critical that we not start over with a beginner and ensure that someone like me with the seniority and clout represents this community.”
Mr. Moskowitz is running in the new 25th District, along coastal Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. It leans Republican but is considered competitive. He lamented the gerrymandering “race to the bottom” that he said will lead to more partisanship and gridlock.
“If you think Congress is dysfunctional now, just wait for us to prove you wrong,” he said.
The other two Democrats whose districts were eliminated, Representative Kathy Castor of Tampa and Representative Darren Soto of Orlando, are also running, but in seats that Mr. Trump won by 10 percentage points and nearly 18 points in 2024.
Ms. Castor, who is in her 10th term, said she was undeterred, in part because of her expectation of an anti-Trump wave this year. She pointed to some of the president’s seemingly tone-deaf statements, such as “I love the inflation,” which he said last week in the Oval Office.
“I see a big change election for the G.O.P. in power in Congress,” she said.
With Democrats having to defend three formerly safe seats, it seems less likely that they will have many resources to try to flip other seats that they had hoped to keep competitive. Florida Republicans have outpaced Democrats in voter registration and fund-raising for years.
“Democrats are running on empty in Florida,” Maureen O’Toole, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement.
Mr. Holness, Mr. Manley and Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick said that Ms. Wasserman Schultz should have run in the new, Republican-leaning 22nd District, which includes her home. She might have given the G.O.P. a real race there, they said.
“The fact that she’s abandoning her district and coming into our district, it doesn’t give people any faith that she will stand and she will fight,” Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick said.
Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from office in April before a House panel was scheduled to consider expelling her. She has been indicted on criminal charges of embezzling $5 million in federal disaster aid and using it for her campaign. She has denied the accusation and pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Manley said Ms. Wasserman Schultz represents the establishment at a time when Democratic voters are frustrated with the status quo.
“To have somebody running here and try to divide and conquer the district is going to hurt the party in irreparable ways,” he said. “People may stay home in November. People may leave the party.”
Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.
