Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick went to Congress thanks to the slimmest possible victory, just five votes. Now, she’s secured another term without appearing on the Florida ballot at all, after no candidate came forward to challenge her reelection.

It was a last-minute surprise, and Cherfilus-McCormick will serve in the House at least until January 2027.

“It feels great, and (is) a big relief,” she said.

The Broward-Palm Beach County Democrat outlined her plans and priorities in a wide-ranging phone interview with The South Florida Sun Sentinel in which she also expressed puzzlement about why a celebrity threatened to run against her but never ended up backing up all his talk.

She said, more than once, that the “world is on fire,” both at home and abroad, and said Americans are yearning for solutions rather than rhetoric from their leaders. “Americans are tired of the theater. They’re tired of being used like pawns.”

Congresswoman

Cherfilus-McCormick, 45, narrowly won a November 2021 special primary and easily won a January 2022 special general election to succeed the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings in the 20th Congressional District, which takes in most of the Black American and Caribbean American communities in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

She won a full term in 2022, and when Florida’s 2024 congressional races were set last month, she became the only representative from the state to automatically win another term when no Democrat came forward to challenge her in the August primary and Republicans didn’t put forth a candidate to run against her in November.

Member of Congress is her first elected office. In the 2018 and 2020 Democratic primaries, she challenged Hastings. Although she wasn’t successful, those campaigns gave her invaluable experience and demonstrated that she wasn’t afraid to tread where seasoned politicians wouldn’t venture.

Arriving in the Capitol, she opted not to try to build name recognition with a constant presence on social media and frequent cable TV appearances. Her goal wasn’t capturing attention through viral videos.

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