Holness runs again

New York, USA — Buoyed by his lead in the fund-raising chase, Jamaican American Dale Holness is bracing to face his most formidable foe yet in his third bid to become a United States Congressman from Florida.

Holness, a former Broward County mayor and commissioner, failed to snatch victory by an excruciatingly thin margin of five votes when he first ran on a Democratic ticket for the 20th Congressional District in 2021 against then fund-raising juggernaut Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Haitian.

The Jamaican businessman was again defeated by Cherfilus-McCormick in a second bid a year later in the same district which comprised Broward and Palm Beach counties despite potential support from the 25,000-strong Jamaican population there.

This time he is unlikely to face his Haitian nemesis who has just resigned from the Congress, battling charges of fraud and ethics violations, including claims that she used US$5 million her family’s health company received erroneously as COVID grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to fund her first campaign. She maintains her innocence.

Cherfilus-McCormick resigned late last month,minutes before the House Ethics Committee was about to convene to decide if it would recommend her expulsion from Congress, an outcome that was widely expected.

And even if Cherfilus-McCormick runs again, as she indicated she planned to do before resigning, she has been severely weakened by the charges, as evidenced by the paltry sums she has raised so far, the worst of the five candidates for the Democratic primary elections expected in August this year.

Jamaican-American Dale Holness (right) with Alcee Hastings, the late long-time Democrat who inspired his run for Congress.

As Cherfilus-McCormick’s time in Congress was nearing an end, she depleted almost all her campaign cash — to pay legal fees to her criminal defence attorney — leaving her with US$11,000 regarded as pocket change for a congressional campaign. The former congresswoman’s campaign committee is also deeply in debt, including six figures in unpaid bills owed to other law firms.

But Holness’s most formidable foe is shaping up to be a move by Republicans to redistrict, or redraw the boundaries of the 20th Congressional District — the most Democratic in the Sunshine State — adding Coral Springs, Margate and Coconut Creek, and dropping Palm Beach.

Last Wednesday, the Florida state legislature approved a measure to undertake the redistricting that could likely net the party four additional Florida seats in Congress, apparently hoping that the 20th district would be one of them.

That decision is, however, likely heading for a legal challenge, as the Florida constitution prohibits partisan gerrymandering based on the 2010 “Fair Districts” Amendment Act which forbids district maps that intentionally favour a party or diminishes the voting rights of minorities.

A redistricting battle has been playing out across the United States since Republicans in Texas, at the behest of US President Donald Trump, changed the state’s congressional boundaries in a bid to ensure the party wins an additional five seats there in the midterm elections this November.

Democrats struck back with their own redistricting plans with successful referenda in California and Virginia that could net the party an additional nine seats between them.

A ruling last week by the US Supreme Court appears to weaken a section of the Voting Rights Act — the 1965 landmark law that protected minority representation in Congress — in favour of Republicans in Louisiana.

Still, Holness remains undaunted, suggesting to the Jamaica Observer that the proposed redistricting could work in his favour. He noted that 70 per cent of the areas that make up the 20th district “are still intact”.

“These are areas that I know quite well, areas where I have worked with the people over many years and to whom I have been able to bring a better way of life as commissioner and mayor,” he said.

Holness also finds some comfort in his sizeable fund-raising lead outpacing the amounts in the bank accounts of each of the other four candidates. His campaign said it raised over US$92,500 during the last quarter and has $312,672 on hand after spending over $8,000.

He is insisting, though, that he is taking nothing for granted, saying: “While I will acknowledge that I am in a fairly strong position, I also know that there is a lot more to be done… “I learned from past elections. I’m not hiring a whole bunch of high-paying consultants. I’ve been on the phone. Most of that money that I raised is from phone calls. I’m not spending money to make money,” he said.

He attributes his fund-raising success to the fact that people in the district “are aware of my achievements as commissioner and mayor. The majority of the donations come from ordinary people as I have not accepted anything from any political action committees (PACs).”

Among the headwinds he will face is that with the reconfiguration of the district it is not known what percentage of the new district will now be identified as Jamaicans.

“Also, people have to be motivated to come out and vote, and some may not even recognise that there is a primary election on August 18 before we get to the general election in November.”

He said he would continue to build his campaign around the issue of affordability, pointing to the high cost of living and the struggles the people in the district are facing to make ends meet.

“Many, some of whom are working two or three jobs, are still finding it difficult to survive. Healthcare is out reach for the most vulnerable as the state of Florida has refused to extend the Medicare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act,” he lamented.

Holness is also concerned about what he sees as the inability of especially young people in the district to own a home and the inadequate provisions for those in the district in need of childcare.

“These are the issues to which I will devote my service if elected,” he pledged.

Born on April 2, 1957, in Hanover, Jamaica, Holness migrated to the US at age 17. He attended Broward Community College and Nova Southeastern University. He is a long-time real estate broker and head of All Broward Realty.

He served on the Lauderhill City Commission from 2004 to 2010, before winning a seat on the Broward County Commission, serving until 2022. He became the first Jamaican American to become Broward County mayor from 2019 to 2020, leading during the initial COVID-19 pandemic response.

In 2021 Holness was honoured by the Jamaican Government as a Commander of the Order of Distinction (CD) for outstanding services in the Diaspora.

The other Democratic candidates seeking the party’s nomination are Luther Campbell, Elijah Manley, and Rudolph