Cherfilus-McCormick, who resigned from Congress under cloud, says she's running to regain seat

Less than a month after she resigned from Congress in the face of a looming expulsion recommendation, former U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick said Monday she is a candidate to return to Washington.

Cherfilus-McCormick said she is seeking the Democratic nomination in the reconfigured 20th Congressional District, which is concentrated in central Broward County, after Florida Republicans changed the map of Florida congressional districts.

She said she isn’t deterred by four other candidates who are already running to return to — or by the prospect that U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz might decide to run in the same district. Wasserman Schultz’ Broward district was blown up by the new Republican districts.

“The strongest candidate in the race is me,” Cherfilus-McCormick said. “I never said I wasn’t running.”

The former congresswoman made it clear she doesn’t care for Wasserman Schultz, the senior Democratic member of Florida’s congressional delegation. When she was first elected, in a 2022 special election to fill the vacancy left by the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, Cherfilus-McCormick said Wasserman Schultz was dismissive when she arrived in Washington.

“One of the first things that ever happened when I came into Congress, she told me I wouldn’t be in Congress for more than 5 minutes, and here we are, five years still fighting. So I wish everyone well, but what I know is that in our district we’ll be fighting and we’ll make sure that the Black voice, as well as everybody’s voice is not diluted, and that’s what this is about, to make sure that everyone’s voice is being heard.”

Cherfilus-McCormick made her comments in response to reporters’ questions just before a gathering of members from about 20 Broward Democratic clubs, organized by Barbara Effman, president of the West Broward Democratic Club. Effman is a longtime Wasserman Schultz supporter.

Wasserman was the evening’s major speaker and arrived at the event as reporters were talking to Cherfilus-McCormick. The two didn’t cross paths.

Wasserman Schultz received a standing ovation from most of the audience of about 200.

She said she hasn’t decided what district she’ll run in. “I want to make one thing very clear. I am running for reelection. There is no way that I would back down from this fight,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Wasserman Schultz said she has been talking with people about her options. “I really need to have a lot more of those conversations. I’m not going to be careless or presumptuous regarding this important of a decision. I’m going to approach this decision with the respect and consideration that this community deserves.”

Afterward, Wasserman Schultz told reporters she wasn’t focused on other candidates, including Cherfilus-McCormick.

“I’m focused on talking to the people across the community and getting their input and feedback and not focused on what other people are doing,” Wasserman Schultz said. “I’m reaching out to leaders across our community and talking to them about how they feel about it, about what they think about the idea of who represents them, and just getting input from them, and that’s what I’m focused on right now.”

The unusual middecade redistricting was pushed through the Florida Legislature by Gov. Ron DeSantis after President Donald Trump called for Republican-controlled states to change congressional district boundaries to get more Republicans and fewer Democrats elected in November.

Cherfilus-McCormick said she would be running in the reconfigured 20th District where she said she has received “so much support” from the community.

“So if you talk about strong records, strong characters, or strong candidates, look at my record, and then you’ll see strength,” she said. “I got so many calls from the constituents and from the people saying we need you to continue to fight, especially right now when we see this redistricting map going on. And so that’s why I’m here to continue that fight.”

Cherfilus-McCormick said Wasserman Schultz can run wherever she wants.

“Everybody should run wherever they feel like they should run, where you can represent the people accurately and passionately,” she said, adding skepticism — when asked about Wasserman Schultz — about a candidate choosing to run in a district because it “looked like it would be easier to do.”

Cherfilus-McCormick resigned on April 21, minutes before the House Ethics Committee was about to convene to decide if it would recommend her expulsion from Congress, an outcome that was widely expected.

Wasserman Schultz declined to say if Cherfilus-McCormick’s decision to resign was the correct one. “She’s resigned and that chapter is closed, and I’m focused on the future.”

A bipartisan adjudicatory subcommittee of the House ethics committee found in March that Cherfilus-McCormick had committed 25 ethics violations, including breaking campaign finance laws.

Many of the findings stem from Cherfilus-McCormick’s receipt of millions of dollars from her family’s health care business after Florida overpaid the firm $5 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds, with the subcommittee determining much of that money helped fund her first two successful political campaigns, in 2021 and 2022.

The former congresswoman has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has entered a not guilty plea to federal criminal charges, some of which overlap with the House ethics case.

Cherfilus-McCormick faces a criminal trial next year but said it wouldn’t be a distraction from running.

“I’ve never been distracted,” she said. “I’ve never shied away from a fight. I’m still fighting, and my team has always said, we’re ready. We’re ready for this fight. We’re ready to fight and win.”

She said she is still running “because the people need me. If I was intimidated by people who threatened me or try to do all these allegations, then where would we be? I mean, as a woman who’s been in this race and who’s been in politics, there’s never been anything easy for any of us. And I would say for anybody who’s in District 20 life has never been easy for anybody. So who am I to shy away when every day my constituents get up and they fight every single day despite what they have coming at them?”

Cherfilus-McCormick said she resigned, rather than remain in Congress because “it was very, very clear at that moment that we weren’t getting a fair process and when we weren’t getting a fair process, it just didn’t make any sense to go forward with it.”

Staying in Congress wouldn’t have mattered much anyway, she said, because Congress is currently in “more of a lame-duck period because everybody right now is running for office.”

Even before Cherfilus-McCormick resigned, four other candidates announced they were seeking the Democratic nomination in the previous 20th District, and have since said they’d run in the new 20th District.

They are Luther Camptell, a free-speech advocate, civic activist, podcaster and youth football coach; Dale Holness, a former Broward County commissioner who lost 2021 and 2022 congressional primaries to Cherfilus-McCormick; Elijah Manley an activist who has run unsuccessfully for office before; and Rudolph Moise, a physician and former congressional candidate.—

Cherfilus-McCormick is at a significant disadvantage: Since her criminal indictment, campaign reports show her political fundraising essentially has ground to a halt. Most of the money she had in her campaign account has gone to pay for legal fees.

Combined with anemic fundraising, a payment to her former criminal defense lawyer left her with just $11,000 in cash in her campaign account as of March 31.

That amount of cash amounts to pocket change for a congressional campaign. The former congresswoman’s campaign committee is also deeply in debt, including six figures in unpaid bills owed to other law firms.

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