Citing “sensitivities of the moment” he said are widely recognized, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries pointedly said he hasn’t decided whether to support U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s reelection campaign.
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The national Democratic leader, who usually supports the party’s incumbents, declining to endorse the reelection of Broward’s most high-profile elected Democrat is notable. A few minutes earlier he declared strong support for another Democratic incumbent facing a contested primary.
As part of her reelection message to voters, Wasserman Schultz has emphasized that she is part of Jeffries’ current leadership team as a co-chair of the Steering and Policy Committee, and said if he becomes speaker of the House after the November elections that she would be working alongside him as part of a congressional majority.
Separately, one of Broward’s highest-ranking Black elected officials, State Attorney Harold Pryor, convened a meeting among the four Black candidates for the same congressional seat — to see if they could coalesce around one. The theory, some have said, is that a one-on-one race with one Black candidate would have a better chance of winning the primary against Wasserman Schultz, who is white.
Republicans who control state government recently redrew the state’s congressional districts in a way that could get more Republicans and fewer Democrats elected in November. Part of that effort chopped up Wasserman Schultz’s current district and spread its pieces among five newly configured districts.
Wasserman Schultz, the senior Democrat in the Florida Congressional Delegation, is running in the new 20th Congressional District, where the population is about 42% Black. Black voters make up a higher share of the Democratic primary electorate.
House leader
Jeffries declined to back Wasserman Schultz when asked directly at a Washington, D.C., news conference, “Do you support her run in that district?”
Jeffries’ response: “Haven’t made a decision, as it relates to that particular race. Everybody has a right to run, where they see fit. They gotta go make their case to the people that they hope to represent moving forward, and that’s what I’ve communicated directly to Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz.”
He praised her “strong track record of accomplishment here in the Congress and on behalf of the people that she’s represented over the years in Florida.”
However, he added, there are other considerations. “At the same period of time, I think we all recognize the sensitivities of the moment in terms of an unprecedented Jim Crow-like assault on Black political representation that has been unleashed by the Supreme Court’s outrageous decision to gut the Voting Rights Act, and it’s an environment that all of us need to be sensitive to as we move forward.”
A late April Supreme Court ruling significantly weakening part of the Voting Rights Act was cited by Gov. Ron DeSantis as the rationale for changing the state’s congressional districts. President Donald Trump had earlier pushed Republican-controlled states to change their districts to help Republicans and hurt Democrats in the midterm elections.
A DeSantis staffer drew the maps.
The new 20th District includes much of the old 20th District, which for decades — until the Supreme Court decision — had been designed to increase chances voters would elect a Black lawmaker.
Black candidates and political leaders have objected to Wasserman Schultz running in the 20th District, arguing she doesn’t have the lived experience to provide the best representation to Black voters.
Dale Holness, one of the other candidates, said via email that Jeffries’ decision “is a telling sign of his discomfort, and probably his disagreement with her running in Congressional District 20 … a seat that has been held for more than 30 years by someone of color. When a representative has walked the same streets, navigated the same systemic challenges, and shares the cultural identity of a district that is 76% minorities, it brings an organic, deep-seated advocacy to Washington.”
Asked to comment on Jeffries’ comments, Wasserman Schultz said in a statement that “I’m thankful for the strong and broad support I’ve received all over CD20. I’ll continue to talk with Broward voters and make my case that I’ll be the most effective representative for this whole community, and as always, I’m not taking any support for granted.”
Field not set
Candidates have until June 12 to officially qualify to get on the ballot for the Aug. 18 Democratic primary. The field is not set.
Pryor organized the hourslong meeting among the four Black candidates for the seat Monday night at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Responding to questions in a written statement, Pryor said he has “always believed that communities are strongest when united. I am one of many leaders in our community who is concerned that a high number of candidates may well fracture the community that I not only represent, but also live in. I was a part of bringing folks together to articulate those concerns to attempt to prevent unnecessary fissures in the community before candidates make their decisions as to their path forward before qualifying later this month.”
So far, none of the four is willing to withdraw in favor of one or two candidates, said one of the candidate-participants, candidate Elijah Manley.
Manley said the meeting was “very fruitful and constructive” with all the candidates agreeing “how important it is that someone with our lived experience represents this district. We all agree that in a head-to-head with Debbie she loses.”
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“We all agree that there needs to be a consolidation. That’s the best chance of the seat to remain represented by an African American,” he said. “This should not be a district that we lose.”
Holness told WFOR-Ch. 4 that it was a “cordial conversation.” Candidate Luther Campbell didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Candidate Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick couldn’t be reached.
Cherfilus-McCormick, who was elected to Congress in 2022, is running to return. She resigned in April just before the Ethics Committee was set to recommend sanctions for 25 ethics violations found by an adjudicatory subcommittee.
Pryor added that he has “always had the utmost respect for Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz, and am deeply grateful for her decades of service to our community in Congress. She has the right to make her own determination as to which district she runs in.”
Parts of a poll conducted last month for Wasserman Schultz’s campaign showed her with higher favorability among African American and Caribbean American Democrats in the 20th District than among white voters. Excerpts of the poll released by the campaign showed she would win a primary with 52% of the vote.
The poll was conducted May 5-10, when her possible 20th District candidacy had received some pushback. The criticism from Black candidates and leaders has intensified since then. Wasserman Schultz has also been rolling out testimonials and endorsements from Black community leaders.
Jeffries
Jeffries has to juggle multiple priorities.
If Democrats win control of the House in November, he is in line to become the first Black speaker of the House. He needs support of fellow members of the Black Caucus in the leadership election.
His decision not to publicly support Wasserman Schultz’s reelection bid stands out in part because of what he said a few minutes before and a few minutes after his comments about her candidacy.
Jeffries delivered a full-throated endorsement of U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who faces a significant primary challenge in his New York district, calling him “a bold, effective leader. He’s been battling Donald Trump. He’s been battling MAGA extremism. Adriano Espaillat has been battling ICE. … I’m going to continue to stand strongly behind Representative Adriano Espaillat, and we’re gonna work hard to make sure he’s reelected.”
Then, he demurred about Wasserman Schultz. (Their situations are slightly different. Espaillat’s district didn’t change. Florida districts were altered, so she had to decide where to seek reelection.)
A few minutes later, he said in response to another question that “I stand behind every single House Democratic incumbent, whether they’re a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as is the case with Adriano Espaillat, a New Dem or Blue Dog, and I’m gonna continue to do that. And then we’ll see what happens at the end of the day in terms of what the voters decide.”
Before she announced where she’d run, and since, Wasserman Schultz has said she has touted her relationships with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, especially Jeffries.
“I sit on the leadership team for our leader Hakeem Jeffries. When he becomes speaker, we’re in the majority, I will be on his leadership team, and our community needs to have that kind of clout, experience and seniority,” she told reporters at an event in Plantation.
After her reelection announcement, she said on the WFOR-Ch. 4 “Facing South Florida” program that she is “very close with my CBC colleagues and, obviously, close with Leader Jeffries as a member of his leadership team.”
She said that “none of them asked me not to run.”
U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Saturday on the CNN “First Of All” program that she had “a conversation” with Wasserman Schultz about her plans.
“I was essentially informed that Debbie wanted to run in this seat,” Clarke said. “She has every right to decide where she runs. … There are valid reasons that the people, Black folks in particular, in this district and in the state of Florida have raised concerns about Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz’s decision to run in this district, and I’m not there to invalidate that.”
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at [email protected] and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
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