Former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) is attempting to reclaim her old congressional seat after resigning earlier this year amid an indictment for allegedly “stealing federal disaster funds, laundering the proceeds, and using the money to support her 2021 congressional campaign.”
The Florida Democrat faced an expulsion vote after a House Ethics panel found her guilty of 25 ethics violations related to the allegations.
Democrat Representative Found GUILTY On 25 House Ethic Violations, Expulsion May Soon Be Next
Now, Cherfilus-McCormick is one of five Democrats seeking the party's nomination in the realigned Broward County 20th Congressional District in the August 18 primary.
After indictment, she’s still running for Congress.
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is asking voters to return her to Congress — less than four months after she resigned from the House of Representatives.
Cherfilus-McCormick is one of five Democrats seeking her party’s nomination in… pic.twitter.com/oZxIvSrcE3
— Tony Seruga (@TonySeruga) August 15, 2026
More from the South Florida Sun Sentinel:
The district is so overwhelmingly Democratic — President Donald Trump finished 39 points behind Kamala Harris in the 2024 election — that the winner of the congressional primary is all-but-guaranteed to win the November election.
ADVERTISEMENTIn April, Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from the House. A bipartisan adjudicatory subcommittee found she committed 25 ethics violations. And she faces federal criminal charges.
On the campaign trail, Cherfilus-McCormick has asserted from the debate stage, in media interviews and in conversations with voters that she’s done nothing wrong. Instead, Cherfilus-McCormick is telling voters she is the victim of politically motivated investigations, a description that echoes the claims Trump made about the investigations into his conduct before he was elected to a second term in 2024.
She has suggested political motives involving both the yearslong congressional investigation, which culminated in her resignation, and the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, which secured an indictment against her.
“In the United States there is a presumption of innocence, especially when we see weaponization of the DOJ, not just from one party, from both sides in a political climate,” Cherfilus-McCormick told the outlet in July.
“And I say this over and over again, we have to go back to actually what our Constitution says and we have to go back to the reality of it because these political politics always try to tear people down during these moments, during these moments when our district is under attack, during these moments when we actually have elections," she continued.
“If we turn a blind eye to political weaponization and injustice, then we are a part of it," she added.
Cherfilus-McCormick paid a $10,440 fee to get on the ballot for the 20th Congressional District primary, Florida Politics previously noted.
The competitive primary will include Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
Florida Politics shared further:
Her entry makes it harder for Black candidates in CD 20 to unite behind one person.
ADVERTISEMENTProgressive activist Elijah Manning has already qualified for the race. Luther Campbell, the rapper-turned-community leader, paid the fee and shared a video on X of himself turning in his paperwork.
Former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness submitted petitions to skip the fee and just needs to finish his paperwork.
Cherfilus-McCormick is still listed as the incumbent on Florida’s Division of Elections website, but she resigned from Congress in April during a House Ethics investigation.
