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In the Democrat Primary race for Congressional District 20, the incumbent Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick's campaign did not respond to our repeated requests for an interview.
After unsuccessfully challenging the late Congressman Alcee Hastings in a Democrat primary in 2018 and 2020, Cherfilus-McCormick was able to defeat 10 other candidates in a special primary held last year, after the death of Hastings to cancer.
The attorney and CEO of a home health care company got just five more votes than former Broward County Commissioner and Mayor Dale Holness and went on to win the special general election with 79 percent of the vote in this very Democrat-friendly district.
In this primary, the Representative and Holness have a rematch, along with a third candidate, State Representative Anika Omphroy.
There's been a lot of back and forth between Cherfilus-McCormick and Holness in this race, including both candidates accusing the other of lying.
Holness is a realtor and former Broward County Commissioner. He served as County Mayor during the early days of the COVID pandemic. Holness says by working with city leaders from across Broward, they were able to save lives and protect people's livelihoods.
"In fact at the time that I was mayor, the death per capita in Broward County was less than in Palm Beach or in Miami-Dade County. In fact, we had fewer people die in Broward from COVID."
Holness's priorities include affordable housing which would feature steps to help with homeownership.
Another priority...
"We must look at our border and the processes to how we ensure that we don't have people just coming across that we don't know who they are. That must be in play also."
Holness was born in Jamaica and came to our country legally.
The third primary candidate is State Rep. Anika Omphroy, who is in her second term in District 95, covering areas of Broward County.
"(The) background on me is I am a community strategist and a business owner who decided there were some things that I wanted to see fixed."
Omphroy is a first-generation American of Jamaican, Haitian and Panamanian descent.
She acknowledges that we are in a recession, something Democrat leadership in this country will not do. Omphroy has a focus on helping businesses with ten or fewer employees.
"What I would like to see is a microbusiness administration created, to help microbusiness owners and entrepreneurs pursue their American dream."
U.S. House, District 20 covers portions of Palm Beach and Broward counties. With redistricting, the coverage area is mostly the same as it was in Palm Beach, with more significant changes in Broward.