U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Broward County Democrat whose district represents parts of Palm Beach County, resigned her seat in Congress on April 21, minutes before the U.S. House Ethics Committee was set to determine what sanctions she should face for what it found were dozens of ethics and rules violations.
Cherfilus-McCormick faced possible expulsion. She was indicted last year by a federal grand jury in Miami on charges that she misappropriated $5 million in COVID relief money, funneling it to friends and relatives who then donated to her campaign.
Cherfilus-McCormick’s resignation has a broad set of implications. Here are just a few:
District 20 residents have no congressional representation
The roughly 820,000 residents of Florida’s 20th congressional district, which stretches from Lake Okeechobee south to Miramar and jogs east to take in Riviera Beach and other majority-Black portions of Broward, has no voting representative in the U.S. House. And, depending on whether Gov. Ron DeSantis quickly calls for a special election and depending on whether the state Legislature erases the 20th through redistricting, the district’s residents may not have a voting representative until January 20th, 2027, when new members are sworn into office after the November general election.
For context, District 20 has more residents than Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota and Alaska.
While district residents have no one to vote on their behalf, they can still access services a congressional office performs.
That’s because the office of a resigned member of Congress becomes a “ward of the clerk of the House,” who becomes the de facto supervisor of the former member’s staff. Though some staff members typically leave when their boss does, those who remain are expected to handle constituent services until they leave the job or are replaced by their former boss’ successor.
Race to succeed Cherfilus-McCormick heats up
The congresswoman already had one opponent in the Democratic primary, community activist Elijah Manley.
On April 22, another Democrat announced his intention to seek the District 20 seat: Dr. Rudolph Moise, a family physician, said he’s running to “lower costs for working families, fight Donald Trump and the Republicans and protect Medicaid and Social Security while restoring integrity and accountability to this office.”
The filing deadline is June 12, the primary is August 18, and the general election is Nov. 3.
DeSantis does have the authority to call a special election, but he has called for a special session of the Legislature to redraw the boundaries of the state’s congressional districts. District 20 could be shrunk or moved in that process.
Cherfilus-McCormick faces challenging road ahead
Members of Congress who resign their seats immediately stop getting paid their annual salary of $174,000. But Cherfilus-McCormick has bigger challenges than that.
Job No. 1 for the former congresswoman will be to stay out of prison. If convicted, the 47-year old congresswoman faces up to 53 years in prison, according to a statement released last year by the U.S. Justice Department.
The Justice Department under President Donald Trump has swung and missed in attempted prosecutions of some high-profile political targets, most notably New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
Historically, however, DOJ has been extraordinarily effective at moving defandants from indictment to guilty plea or conviction.
In 2022, 0.4% of federal defendants went to trial and were acquitted, according to a study from the Pew Research Center. Some 8.2% of federal defendants had their cases dismissed, and 1.9% went to trial and were found guilty.
The overwhelming number of federal defendants, 89.5%, pleaded guilty to one or more of the crimes they were accused of committing.
Cherfilus-McCormick, who has denied the allegations made against her, no longer has politics as a concern and can focus her energies on her criminal defense.
Wayne Washington is a journalist covering education and Riviera Beach development for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick resigns. What happens for District 20
Reporting by Wayne Washington, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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