Debbie Wasserman Schultz won the Democratic nomination to represent Florida’s 20th congressional district. Her victory signals the end of more than three decades of Black representation in a historic bastion of Black political power in South Florida.

Wasserman Schultz now faces Republican nominee Brent Andersen in a contest for one of the safest Democratic congressional seats in Florida.

Wasserman Schultz, the only non-Black candidate on the Democratic side, secured just under 50% of the vote — enough to surpass a fractured field of rivals that included former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness, Miami hip-hop icon Luther Campbell, substitute teacher Elijah Manley and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who represented this district until she resigned in April while under investigation for stealing disaster money to fund her first congressional campaign, among other ethics violations.

Wasserman Schultz now faces Republican nominee Brent Andersen in a contest for one of the safest Democratic congressional seats in Florida.

Politicians across South Florida and the country sharply criticized Wasserman Schultz’s decision to run in District 20, which traces its roots to a district drawn under the Voting Rights Act in 1992 to boost Black Floridians’ political power. That year, the district elected Alcee Hastings who — along with Miami-Dade County’s Casey Meek and Jacksonville’s Corrine Brown — became Florida’s first Black representatives in Congress since the Reconstruction Era 117 years earlier.

“It’s not merely symbolic. It’s not merely historic. It’s about the life of people who live in this district,” Holness told the Trib on Monday. “The people in this district, who are 76% minority, have lived experience that they can fight for, defend, and protect their communities, and take that message to the Congress.”

Wasserman Schultz does not live in District 20, which covers inland stretches of Broward and Palm Beach counties and whose population is 48% Black. Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans redrew the state’s congressional maps to give themselves a partisan advantage and split Wasserman Schultz’s district among five neighboring districts. Most of it was absorbed into District 22, which covers a coastal swath of Broward and Palm Beach counties including Wasserman Schultz’s home.

Wasserman Schultz’s gerrymandered district leans Republican. The area backed Joe Biden for president by three percentage points in 2020 and Trump by 10 points in 2024.

Holness said he showed Wasserman Schultz polling that indicated she could win FL-22 with her fame and funding. Prominent Democrats and Black political leaders urged her not to switch districts. But on May 22, she announced she would run in District 20.

She told Politico she got input from more than 100 Broward County faith and community leaders, many of them “African American or Caribbean American,” who supported her decision. Wasserman Schultz’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment last week or tonight.

Holness, Manley, Campbell and Cherfilus-McCormick met on June 1 to discuss consolidating behind one candidate to defeat Wasserman Schultz, but they couldn’t agree on a standard bearer. So, all stayed in the race and lost.

In a May press release, the Democratic Black Caucus of Broward County predicted far-reaching consequences if Wasserman Schultz were to win FL-20.

“If a non-Black Democratic incumbent can come into a vacant Black-opportunity district, consolidate against a fractured Black field, and win,” the group wrote, “every other Black-opportunity district in the South that loses its incumbent becomes available to the next displaced non-Black Democrat the same way.”

Nicolás Rivero is an environmental accountability reporter at The Florida Trib. He can be reached at nicolas.rivero@floridatrib.org.