MIAMI — When Congresswoman Carrie Meek suddenly called it quits nearly a quarter century ago, she did everything in her power, including announcing her retirement at the last minute, to put her son on a glide path to succeed her in Washington.

“She’s calling in all her chits, she’s calling all her friends for the campaign,” Kendrick Meek said en route to a 2002 campaign he won automatically when only a write-in candidate ran against him.

And now that the job is open once again — with retiring U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson declaring “this is Carrie Meek’s seat” on her way out the door — Kendrick Meek is putting all his weight into electing Kendrick Meek.

Kendrick Meek Jr., that is.

To win what may be the most competitive Democratic primary race in South Florida, the Meek dynasty is pulling out all the stops to elect the 29-year-old scion, who unlike his father must cut through a crowded field of established candidates if he wants to continue the family’s legacy in D.C..

Meek Jr. — who appears on the ballot without the suffix — launched his campaign from his late grandmother’s old home in central Miami-Dade, with her portrait looking over his shoulder. He features her prominently in his campaign material and is leaning on his father’s counsel and connections. He is using his father’s one-time press aide — the former deputy chief of staff to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — to wrangle the media, and has benefitted from political ads tied to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which his father advises.

Neither Meek is bashful about the family effort. Quite the opposite. It’s part of their pitch, with the son saying he’d lean on his 59-year-old father to help him in Washington if elected.

“He’s an incredible resource,” said Meek Jr., “and it would be unwise for anybody not to.”

Said Meek Sr.: “I’m looking forward to, not only as a father but as a person of goodwill in our community, the opportunity — if he’s fortunate enough to be elected — to work with him and to utilize my relationships as I’m utilizing my relationships in this campaign to help him.”

Even so, the partnership raises questions about who would wield more power — the freshman representative or the veteran D.C. lobbyist who raised him — and opens the door for opponents to cast Meek Jr. as a silver-spoon politician looking to capitalize on his family name.

“His relevant experience is his internships and his genes,” said Miami-Dade Commissioner and former Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert, 53, who is polling ahead of Meek Jr. “That’s what’s being cited right now.”

Building his own legacy

Kendrick Meek Jr. does not have the same credentials that Meek Sr. boasted in 2002 when he ran as a state senator to succeed his retiring mother. At that point, the elder Meek had spent eight years in the Florida Legislature and served as a captain with the Florida Highway Patrol.

But the younger Meek isn’t emerging out of nowhere, either, having interned for congressional committees and the Executive office of the President, according to his LinkedIn.

That work, and his father’s career, meant more time in the nation’s capitol and less in South Florida, where he was born. “I couldn’t control where I lived when I was a kid,” he said. “We moved to D.C. and it’s frankly because I wanted to be with my dad when I was younger.”

But Meek Jr., who is now residing at his grandmother’s house, eventually moved back home and earned his law degree from the University of Miami. In recent years, he was a legal assistant with the Human Rights Campaign and sat on the board for SAVE, the LGBTQ advocacy organization.

He most recently worked for LSN Partners as an associate attorney before resigning the six-figure job to run for Congress, LSN Managing Partner Alex Heckler confirmed, noting the firm threw a fundraiser for Gilbert early in the campaign.

Meek Jr., who bears an uncanny resemblance to his father, dismisses talk that his opportunity is inherited and not earned.

“When I hear comments like that, I just kind of brush it off the shoulder,” he told the Herald. “I’m going to hear that when I get to D.C. Kendrick Sr. heard it when he ran the first time. That’s going to happen regardless. But he ultimately became an incredible legislator and built a legacy of his own, and I expect to do the exact same thing.”

An afternoon with the candidate shows that he began doing that long ago.

“He has always been dear to us, giving back to the community from a young age. I knew him when he was a young boy,” Sharhonda Ford said after releasing Meek from a warm embrace on a hot July afternoon as the campaign made its way through Rolling Oaks Park in Miami Gardens. “I worked beside his grandmother at my university. I want to see him make a difference in our community.”

Lisa Johnson, who attends the same church as the Meeks, calls him a “thoroughbred.”

“It’s important that we have people that represent us and know our story and know what’s needed in our community,” she said. “I’m sure he’s been taught by the generations of what our needs are.”

Meek, the only Gen Z candidate in the race, is running a progressive platform that focuses on increasing the minimum wage to $17, cracking down on private equity firms purchasing homes, and stricter regulations on Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and if push comes to shove, abolishing it. His bravado in attacking opponents’ campaign donors has earned him the moniker Meek Mill, likening his attacks to the rapper’s’ spitfire energy fueled from his time as a battle rapper.

He says the district needs fresh leadership, someone who is not catering to corporate donor dollars.

“I feel like politicians will say whatever they think needs to be said just to get elected, but when they get to office they collapse,” he said. “That’s not going to happen in my case, and I want people to know that.”

Family Connections

On social media over the weekend, as voters in Miami arrived at early voting centers and mail ballots trickled in, Meek’s campaign posted clips of District 24 residents reminiscing about working with his grandmother, praying for him and promising to vote for him.

He included a message: “My opponents say I’m running on my family’s connections. They’re exactly right. I’m running on my connections to you.”

The Meek family connections run deep in Miami, and in Washington. No fewer than two dozen sitting members of Congress have endorsed the young scion’s campaign, including political kingmaker Jim Clyburn in South Carolina and former Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Steven Horsford.

Last month, a virtual fundraiser featuring 20 U.S. representatives, including nine who served with Meek Sr., brought in $100,000, spokesperson Drew Hammill told the Herald.

“This is about the future and the next generation of leaders, and I believe that we need young, strong, thoughtful, committed public servants who understand what it means to fight for people,” said Horsford, describing Meek Jr’s candidacy as a change from the status quo.

Last week, as early voting began, a pro-cryptocurrency political committee called Protect Progress began airing ads on local television attacking Gilbert’s record as a commissioner and his donors. The money trail and paperwork on the committee lead back to Coinbase, which two years ago placed Meek Sr. on its Global Advisory Board to help advise its executive team.

A campaign spokesman said neither Meek had anything to do with the ads. Meek Sr.’s role with Coinbase, he said, “is explicitly advisory in a policy capacity,” and the council “is not involved in any decisions concerning political spending or political activity by that or any other entity.”

But Gilbert, the only candidate who boasts Wilson’s endorsement, said the ads look like another example of Meek Sr. calling in favors.

“It kind of fits with the narrative of his father getting his old clients and his friends and his old buddy congresspersons to actually fund his son’s campaign,” he said. “It doesn’t surprise me because it’s what he’s been doing the whole time, but no one’s actually ever called him on it.”

Meek Sr. said all candidates lean on their advantages, including connections in Tallahassee and at County Hall. He said his involvement in his son’s campaign doesn’t mean he is pulling the strings.

“I trust his instincts in this process,” he said. “Kendrick is being guided by his own intake of information and his experience.”

Meek Sr.’s clients in Washington have included healthcare companies, Amazon, Bethune-Cookman University, Comcast, Padrón Cigars and the city of Miami, according to government documents. He has also been listed as a lobbyist for Honduras Próspera Inc., the Delaware company behind the private start-up city on Roatán island in the Caribbean.

Meek’s campaign, which initially made the candidate and his father available for interviews for this story, asked that the Herald submit questions about Meek Sr.’s lobbying and their relationship in writing. In a statement, Meek Jr. said that his father will not lobby him if he’s elected to Congress. Nor will the former congressman serve on his staff.

“We will maintain a strict and absolute boundary between family relationships and professional public service,” said Meek, who locally has registered to lobby in Miami, Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County. “My policy priorities are driven completely by the everyday working families living in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.”

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