Miramar congresswoman faces 2 more challengers for seat. One is a former rapper
Embattled Miramar Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick picked up two new challengers for her seat over the holiday weekend.
Within 24 hours, controversial rapper-turned-community activist and high school football coach Luther “Luke” Campbell and Haitian-American physician Rudolph Moise announced they will run for Florida’s 20th Congressional District seat.
Previously, former Broward County mayor Dale Holness and activist/educator Elijah Manley had entered the race.
All four are seeking to unseat Cherfilus-McCormick, a Miramar resident who is fighting a 15-count federal indictment alleging she stole $5 million in government disaster funds — charges to which she has pleaded not guilty and blamed on politics.
A House Ethics Committee has also alleged she took more than $800,000 in illegal campaign contributions for her 2022 race. She faces a hearing in front of the committee on March 5.
The number of candidates could signal one of the most-crowded and closely watched summer primaries in a heavily Democratic district stretching across central and western Broward and Palm Beach counties, including Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, Tamarac and Riviera Beach.
However, the district’s voter makeup could mean it’s safe from a Republican takeover during the midterm general elelctions in November.
Campbell, 65, who lives in Miramar and grew up in Liberty City, announced his candidacy on Sunday, Feb. 15, on WPLG-Channel 10’s “This Week in South Florida,” saying he stepped down as Miami Edison High’s football coach in January to focus on the race.
“This is a very underserved community and district,” Campbell said during his announcement. “If the congresswoman was doing her job, I would not run.”
Campbell is best known as the leader of the pioneering Miami hip-hop group 2 Live Crew, which rose to national prominence in the late 1980s for its explicit lyrics and a landmark First Amendment court battle over obscenity.
Moise, 71, a former Air Force Reserve colonel and longtime osteopathic physician, followed Monday, Feb. 16, with a campaign launch centered on health care inequities, immigrant opportunity and leadership forged in military service.
“I am running for Congress because I believe deeply in the promise of this country,” Moise said in his announcement, the Miami Herald reported. “As a physician, I have seen firsthand the inequities in our health care system. As a colonel, I understand leadership, discipline and sacrifice. And as an immigrant, I understand what it means to fight for opportunity.”
The Democratic primary is Aug. 18.
