When candidates running for Florida’s 20th Congressional District gathered for a forum hosted by the local chapter of the NAACP in late July, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the only white candidate in the race, wasn’t there.
“If someone didn’t come, it wasn’t because they weren’t asked, it’s because they chose not to come and ask for your vote,” Marsha Ellison, president of the NAACP Broward County chapter told the audience, which was mostly made up of people of color.
The candidates never directly named Wasserman Schultz — but her decision to run in the district, which has historically been represented by Black lawmakers and has a plurality Black population, has drawn the ire of her opponents and overshadowed much of the race. Wasserman Schultz lives in Florida’s recently drawn 22nd District, which leans Republican. The 20th District is now the safest blue seat in the state.
The anger at Wasserman Schultz is palpable and doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, but it may not matter: Polling in the race has been limited, but Wasserman Schultz is seen as the lead candidate in the race due to the rest of the field splitting the vote. The four Black Democratic candidates in the race initially planned to consolidate behind one person to defeat Wasserman Schultz. However, they were unable to decide who should run and who should drop out.
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While the NAACP forum was largely focused on the candidates’ legislative ideas, many candidates criticized Wasserman Schultz’s decision to run.
Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell, a rapper and Democratic congressional candidate, said that allowing Wasserman Schultz to represent the historically Black district would be “the greatest civil rights threat that’s facing us today.”
“If we allow her to win, we will not win the general,” Campbell said. “The world is watching congressional district 20, and don’t you miss this opportunity.”
The NAACP forum was convened after the Broward County Democratic Black Caucus condemned Wasserman Schultz for suggesting that the group was endorsing her in the race. Wasserman Schultz’s campaign website listed the caucus in its endorsements page, then quietly deleted it after the caucus complained. The group accused Wasserman Schultz of “dishonest intentions” at the time, but Corey Shearer, the caucus’ president, told NOTUS that Wasserman Schultz apologized for the incident and explained that the endorsements listed were from 2022.
However, he said, that doesn’t change his anger that she’s running in a district that has long been represented by a Black representative.
“This is a historical seat for many of us,” Shearer said. “There’s no way, no how, that we want to give that legacy up. And so that’s what Debbie Wasserman Schultz is forcing upon us.”
“The Black community should be able to celebrate that, and our celebration is just ripped away by this move from Debbie Wasserman Schultz, somebody who we looked at as an ally, but it just seems like she was more familiar, and she’s using that familiarity to take an easy way out and look to take our seat,” Shearer said.
The caucus held a debate for candidates in the race last Monday, but Wasserman Schultz also did not attend.
Wasserman Schultz’s campaign did not respond to a list of questions from NOTUS. In a statement, a spokesperson said the “Congresswoman was representing her constituents in DC for votes during both the events in question. Both organizations were informed of this conflict that prevented her from attending.”
Some of the candidates challenging Wasserman Schultz also denounced the Congressional Black Caucus for not publicly speaking out against Wasserman Schultz.
“Our House is not in order because the Congressional Black Caucus … is not on our side,” Campbell said at the NAACP forum. “They allowed a white woman to come in this district knowing that [Republicans] are trying to … gerrymand the vote and take Black representation that has been here for 30 years.”
Former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness, a Democrat, concurred.
“It’s very discouraging, disappointing that the Congressional Black Caucus has not sought to make statements and to stand and say, ‘Look this is wrong,’” Holness said.
The CBC and its campaign arm declined to comment for this story. CBC Chair Yvette Clarke has said she did not encourage Wasserman Schultz to run in the district, despite Wasserman Schultz’s suggestions to the contrary. The CBC PAC does not generally get involved in primaries with multiple Black candidates, though members have endorsed in races in an individual capacity.
Three members of the caucus previously told NOTUS they do not expect the CBC PAC to back the congresswoman in the race. One member at the time called Wasserman Schultz a “friend” to the caucus, so the CBC would likely remain “neutral.”
But House Democrats aren’t running to defend Wasserman Schultz either.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, for example, has declined to endorse Wasserman Schultz in the race.
“I’m looking forward to getting involved in the August primaries, of which there’ll be primaries on Aug. 4th; there will be primaries on Aug. 11th; and then the Florida primaries will be in Aug. 18th,” Jeffries said last Thursday when asked if he’d be endorsing Wasserman Schultz in the race. He called her a “highly effective member of the U.S. Congress and a valuable member of both the leadership team and the House Democratic Caucus.”
Outgoing Rep. Frederica Wilson, who refers to herself as the highest-ranking Black elected official in Florida and represents a neighboring district, recently wrote an op-ed calling the 20th District “a seat paid for by generations of Black sacrifice.” Wilson’s piece does not name Wasserman Schultz.
“If Black lives matter, then the history of Black representation matters too,” Wilson wrote. “We deserve a seat at every table where decisions about our lives, our children, our communities and our future are made. That seat was not given to us. It was earned through generations of Black sacrifice.”
“It is the seat that Black history built,” Wilson continued. “Now it is our responsibility to make sure history never has to build it again.”
Wilson told NOTUS in mid-July that the op-ed was not meant to urge voters to not support Wasserman Schultz but to give context to voters.
“I just wanted the district to know the historical nature of that district.” She added that she had not spoken to Wasserman Schultz since she first announced her candidacy.
“She feels like she should be able to run where she wants to,” Wilson said. But she added, “It took us 117 years to get that district, so I wanted them to be sure when they voted that they were willing to make that sacrifice and go back.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) has weighed in on the race and formally endorsed activist Elijah Manley over Wasserman Schultz. Khanna called Manley “bold and progressive” and told NOTUS that his staff had reached out to Wasserman Schultz’s team before the endorsement was announced.
“At a time where Black political rights are under attack, I find it wrong for a heavily Black majority district not to be represented by an African American who connects in that community,” Khanna said.
While some candidates acknowledged it would easier to beat her if she was running against just one person, they’re hoping the backlash over this race will be enough for her to lose the primary.
“If she gets back to Congress, if she somehow wins this race, she will be persona non grata,” Manley told NOTUS in June. “Nobody is going to want to touch her because she will have proceeded in doing what the Republicans want: taking away not just Black representation, but pushing her own career at the expense of the public because this is all about Debbie.”
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