Debbie Wasserman Schultz Faces Criticism Over Florida District 20 Bid

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a veteran Congressional Democrat, has announced her candidacy for Florida’s District 20 following mid-decade redistricting. This district includes southern Coral Springs, North Lauderdale, Lauderhill, Tamarac, and nearby cities.

Nearly all of Florida’s elected Democratic National Committee members have criticized Wasserman Schultz’s decision. The district was designed to ensure representation for Black voters but was targeted for redistricting by Governor Ron DeSantis this year. A group of ten elected Florida DNC members argued in a statement released Tuesday, “Our party cannot credibly denounce the dismantling of Black political power by Republicans while treating one of Florida’s few remaining majority-Black districts as a political opportunity for an incumbent seeking a safer seat.”

All but two of the party’s 11 non-officer elected members, along with Florida Democratic Party’s First Vice Chair Daniel Henry, signed the letter. The reaction comes after Wasserman Schultz’s declaration to run for District 20. Governor DeSantis and the state Legislature’s redistricting efforts left only three left-leaning districts in a region with five Democratic incumbents.

In Congress for over 20 years, Wasserman Schultz opted to run in a secure Democratic seat rather than one of the newly drawn Republican-favored districts. Though she resides in Florida’s new 22nd District, which stretches from Coral Springs to Marco Island, her voter base was divided across five regions in the state’s redrawn maps, with a small portion included in the 20th District.

Critics argue that she moved her $2.5 million campaign funds to an easily Democratic district to maintain her political strength. The Florida DNC members stated, “We cannot claim to defend voting rights, racial justice, and representation while undermining Black political power when it becomes politically convenient.”

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Wasserman Schultz dismissed these criticisms as stemming from political adversaries. Black candidates have voiced concerns for weeks regarding her District 20 ambitions. “It’s not surprising that criticism is from those already vying for the position,” she remarked.

The DNC members’ statement marks a significant internal party criticism of the congresswoman, who previously led the DNC from 2011 to 2016. Historically, a federal judge established three Black-majority districts in Florida under the Voting Rights Act of 1992 to enable Black voters to elect their preferred candidates, leading to the first Black congressional representatives since Reconstruction.

Florida’s 20th District was initially represented by Alcee Hastings and more recently by Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who left her seat last month but is campaigning for re-election. The Governor’s office intentionally targeted the 20th District, according to his map drawer, anticipating changes in federal Voting Rights Act enforcement.

Wasserman Schultz deflected criticism by highlighting Governor DeSantis’s focus on Broward County. “Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump intentionally disrupted Broward’s districts to weaken its power,” she told the Herald.

For Florida’s DNC members, this situation emphasizes a broader political agenda against Black voters. “This decision reinforces the message that Black representation does not matter. It does matter. Representation matters. Lived experience matters,” they wrote.

Claire Heddles, the Miami Herald’s senior political correspondent, covered national politics and Congress in Washington, D.C., and worked as a radio reporter in East Tennessee and Jacksonville, Florida.