Potential successors are lining up as Frederica Wilson weighs exit
After missing dozens of congressional votes this spring and while waving off resignation rumors, Miami Rep. Frederica Wilson is staring down one of the most pivotal decisions of her career: step down and pass the baton to a Democratic hopeful or hold on and weather another Congress under Donald Trump.
The possibility of Wilson’s retirement has sparked a candidate mad dash in a state where shots at the few safe Democratic federal seats are rare, and incumbents stay in them for decades. Wilson, 83, has been weighing retirement, people close to her told the Miami Herald. She has not announced a final decision, and publicly denied reports that she had told people she wasn’t running again.
But she’ll be attending an event Friday in Miami Gardens honoring her legacy by renaming a local street after her — the perfect kind of setting to announce the closing of a career. Friday is also the deadline for some potential candidates who hold public office to file their irrevocable resign-to-run paperwork to qualify for the seat.
Meanwhile, local Democrats have been laying the groundwork to run a last minute race less than three months before the primary. At least one candidate, Rudolph Moise, announced plans to run in the district Wednesday. Another potential challenger, state Sen. Shevrin Jones, revealed he wouldn’t be running for the state seat again, as “another chapter may just be beginning.”
“It’s no secret that you have those who are interested in the seat,” Jones told the Herald Tuesday. “My intention is not — and I hope the others are doing this — is not pushing the congresswoman out, but we are being respectful.”
Questions about Wilson’s future have been swirling for weeks, and she’s been fighting off criticism for missing all 57 congressional votes between April and May, according to GovTrack. Moise said that’s part of the reason he’s planning to run to represent the district, regardless of whether she resigns.
“Every vote is important and you cannot fight for your constituents if you don’t vote. And now, in District 20 since the congresswoman resigned they don’t have a voice over there either,” he said, referencing Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s resignation last month.
“We have the two major Black districts, they have no voice. So we need an active voice, new leadership that can be present,” he told the Herald.
Wilson said in a statement earlier this month that her absence was due to an eye surgery and serving the 24th District “has been the work of my entire adult life. This is my footprint, and this is what I do, and my constituents know my commitment to them is unwavering.”
Neither Wilson nor her office responded to questions about her candidacy.
Wilson’s 15-year tenure representing the district that includes Miami Gardens, North Miami and Miami Beach has been defined by her focus on education and loyalty to voting with Democratic leadership in Congress. Her hallmark initiative, the long-running 5,000 Role Models of Excellence Project, provides mentorship to students across Florida.
As Miami Democrats prepare for the possibility of succeeding her, the district is poised to be one of the few remaining Black-majority congressional seats in the South, after Florida and other Southern states have been targeting districts initially drawn under the federal Voting Rights Act to ensure Black voters’ could elect candidates of their choice.
The number of Black representatives in Congress is expected to shrink dramatically from Republican state Legislatures’ redistricting efforts.
One of her campaign consultants, Michael Worley, said she has set a high bar for a potential successor in Congress, whenever that time may come.
“There will be a moment where she will wear her hat for the last time. The 5000 Role Models Program will carry that hat forward for a very long time and the impacts of that will be felt in every corner of our community,” he said.
“She immediately joins the ranks of the great Carrie Meek and Gwendolyn Sherry and the other trailblazing Black female leaders that have made such a critical mark on the history of South Florida.”
Miami’s Democratic leaders eyeing higher office
Moise is the only candidate to formally jump in the race this week, ahead of Wilson’s potential retirement announcement. He dropped out of the race in Florida’s 20th District earlier this week, after Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz controversially jumped into that race.
Moise has run against Wilson twice, in an open primary Wilson won in 2010 and again in 2012, when he lost a two-way primary against Wilson with 34% of the vote. He said he’d spoken to Wilson before announcing the 20th District run, but not about the switch into her district Wednesday.
Another likely political challenger, Jones, has said he’s waiting for Wilson to make a clear move before he announces any plans for the race.
“The Congresswoman deserves to have her timeline when she desires to make that decision. It shouldn’t be forced, nor should it be coerced,” he told the Herald Tuesday evening, adding that he’s spoken with her in recent days about her potential next moves. “She has not definitively said what she’s going to do.”
Jones released an emotional announcement Wednesday morning of his planned departure from the state Senate.
Former Miami Gardens mayor and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Oliver Gilbert is also a likely candidate in the 24th District. A prolific fundraiser, Gilbert has more than $1 million remaining in his political committee, Common Voices, to help pad the transition to a primary happening in less than three months. He declined to comment to the Miami Herald.
He could face a difficult decision if Wilson does not announce a decision this week between filing required state documents indicating he will resign at the end of his term in order to run for office. If he waits until after the Friday deadline, he’d have to resign immediately when filing for the race — which would mean campaigning without an existing leadership platform.
Former Congressman Kendrick Meek told the Herald Tuesday he had heard about Wilson’s plans to resign, but was not currently planning to run for the seat. County Commissioner Marleine Bastien’s name has also been floated as a potential candidate; she did not respond to a request for comment. She also ran against Wilson and Moise in 2010.
If Wilson formally announces, there will likely be other candidates popping up for a once-in-a-decade shot for a Democrat to run for a safe seat that has no incumbent to surmount. Moise harkened it to 2010, when at least nine candidates were vying to succeed Meek in Congress.
Despite the dwindling number of days before the primary, he said, “This time, I wouldn’t be surprised that we have as many.”
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