By Anthony Man | [email protected] | South Florida Sun Sentinel
Former Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness, who lost an ultra-close congressional primary to Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick in 2021 and a rematch the following year, is running again for Congress.
After Cherfilus-McCormick won the special Democratic primary election in an 11-candidate field, she went on to fill a vacant Broward-Palm Beach county congressional seat. She won full terms in 2022 and 2024.
Cherfilus-McCormick has been under scrutiny by congressional ethics investigators for most of her time in the House, and on Wednesday the U.S. Department of Justice announced she was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami.
A Justice Department press release said the congresswoman and several other people, including her brother, stole federal disaster COVID-19 vaccination money, laundered the proceeds, and used the money to support her 2021 campaign.
Cherfilus-McCormick, who previously was CEO of her family-owned health care company that received the vaccination contract, denied wrongdoing in a statement. “This is an unjust, baseless, sham indictment — and I am innocent.”
Holness said political repercussions are likely. “The latest news will probably have an impact in that people become more aware of the financial issues that surround what she did, how she raised the funds, and how she got the funds to beat me in the first race by five votes,” he said.
“But the focus must be on the service we render to the people. It’s about how we help our small businesses grow, how we bring resources to them, access to (financial) capital to them, and technical training. Because small businesses lift up economies, and they are the largest employers in our communities.”
Holness said the indictment wasn’t the impetus to run. He’s been a continuing presence at political events, and said he quietly filed paperwork in August to run for Congress.
He said he’s been quietly campaigning since then. “I didn’t do a big, splashy announcement,” Holness said in a telephone interview.
When the Justice Department announced the Cherfilus-McCormick indictment and Holness said he started receiving phone and text messages, Holness said he was at the Kings Point Democratic Club in Tamarac.
And he said he doesn’t dwell on the narrow loss in November 2021, which was decided after a drawn-out period of recounting, challenges and legal arguments. “My focus is on how do we deliver for people,” Holness said.
Holness described his activities as providing constituent-type services, much the way he did when he was serving as county commissioner from November 2012 through January 2022, including a term as county mayor at the outset of the pandemic. Previously he was a Lauderhill city commissioner.
“We decided to continue working in the community providing support, resources and information to people, especially our small businesses,” he said. He said it’s essential to help South Florida businesses compete everywhere. “We’re in a global economy. We are competing with the rest of the world, not just within our country. … We cannot allow China to outcompete us.”
It’s uncertain what kind of district Holness will be running in. Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he wants the Legislature to change the boundaries of Florida’s congressional districts as Republican-controlled states nationwide seek to draw more favorable boundaries for their party heading into a midterm election in which the president’s party usually loses seats.
DeSantis has targeted the Broward-Palm Beach county 20th District where Holness is running.
He has said its boundaries are improper because it was crafted, under the federal Voting Rights Act, with boundaries that made it likely to send a Black lawmaker to Washington. The governor argues that the 20th District’s structure is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, an issue that’s currently under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court in an unrelated case.
Holness said he’s prepared to run in a radically reshaped district if that happens. “We will figure it out when we get there,” Holness said.
But, he added, the Republicans who control Florida state government would make a mistake if they’re too politically greedy because they could end up making some of their own incumbents more vulnerable in 2026. “If they redistrict too much, they put seats that they may have in peril because of the swing that’s happening with the voters.”
Cherfilus-McCormick is the first Haitian American Democrat elected to Congress. Holness is Jamaican American.
Democratic activist Elijah Manley announced months ago he was running in the primary. Manley, 26, who has unsuccessfully run for office several times before, said he is a better choice than Holness, who is 68.
“We need a new generation of leadership and not the same recycled, scandal-plagued politicians who have held Broward County back. Dale Holness represents the same tired politics that keep us stuck and in the national spotlight,” Manley said in a statement.
