Former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), who resigned from Congress after being indicted for allegedly stealing and laundering FEMA emergency funds to the tune of $5 million, lost the Democratic primary race in Florida to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). Wasserman Schultz pulled in a total of 45.6% support, while Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick only pulled in 9.2% support.
Cherfilus-McCormick, 47, was indicted for allegedly stealing $5 million in COVID-19 relief funds that were meant to go to her family’s healthcare company, but the money was laundered into her congressional campaign instead. The former congresswoman pleaded not guilty to all charges and still says she’s innocent. If she is convicted, Cherfilus-McCormick could end up spending 53 years behind bars.
The Florida Democrat resigned from her seat in May 2026, just a few minutes before a vote was set to take place that would have resulted in her being forced out of Congress over ethics violations. At the time, Cherfilus-McCormick told reporters that despite resigning she was going to run again, saying, “The strongest candidate in the race is me.”
“I never said I wasn’t running,” she told reporters, according to an earlier report published by The American Tribune. Her announcement came as Florida’s 20th Congressional District, which has historically been considered a black district, was redrawn by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP. “There’s a fight across the South to make sure Black voices are not diluted and Black representation is preserved,” Cherfilus-McCormick went on to say.
She’s currently scheduled for a criminal trial concerning her theft of FEMA money in 2027. The trial will be held in the city of Miami. Cherfilus-McCormick has stated time and again that she is innocent of the charges brought against her, calling the investigations being launched into her activities as a “witch hunt.” At the time, she claimed that voters still wanted to see her represent them, but it seems that wasn’t the case after all.
When Wasserman Schultz first stated she was considering running to represent District 20, it caused quite a bit of controversy, as black leaders were less than thrilled with the idea of a white woman tightly entrenched in the Democratic Party establishment taking a seat that has been occupied by a black individual for many years and in their eyes, ought to remain that way.
In June, around the time Wasserman Schultz was weighing whether to enter the race, members of the Broward Democratic Black Caucus publicly urged her to not run for the seat due to its history and demographics. It seems their plea fell on deaf ears. Cherfilus-McCormick was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for three years and resulted in the Democrat being charged with 25 ethics violations.
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“I look forward to proving my innocence. Until then, my focus remains where it belongs: showing up for the great people of Florida’s 20th District who sent me to Washington to fight for them,” she said after finding out that she was being charged. Rep. Greg Steube spoke about the violations on X, saying, “Finally, the Ethics Committee agreed that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick has committed 25 ethics violations, including money laundering, fraud, and election violations.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video