• April 26, 2024May 9, 2024
• Election Update

The Florida congressional elections of 2024 are set now and only 1 member in Congress receiving a break and resuming office without having to compete with voters.

The deadline on Friday for candidates to be qualified starts the four-month campaign that runs until August. 20 Democratic and Republican primary elections. The campaign has already begun with one Republican congressman from Palm Beach County releasing a television ad that is challenging the so-called “woke” ideology.

The outcome was unclear until the very last moment and the deadline came with the unexpected: Luther Campbell, the rapper-turned-coach and civic leader decided to not challenge U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick for the Democratic primary, following a campaign that the rapper heavily endorsed a possible campaign.

Without any challenger from either political party, Cherfilus-McCormick became the sole Florida Congressman Congress this year who has automatically was elected to a second term without having to face general or primary elections.

The voters in South Florida will see plenty of activity:

• The eight districts besides Cherfilus-McCormick’s that take in parts of Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties attracted 35 candidates.
• Every incumbent in the region is running for an election. Half of them face primary competition in their home political parties.
• In a few instances the opposition party in power primary has multiple candidates, including those who have had a run-off — and ultimately had a loss before.

Favorite incumbents

A face or two may be altered, but it’s unlikely that the general composition of Washington’s delegation that is currently heavily Republican is different in the wake of this year’s elections according to Sean Foreman, a political scientist at Barry University.

Because of the way Governor. Ron DeSantis and Republicans in the Legislature created the boundaries for districts in Congress, they’re created to favor one of the major parties and not very competitive. This was done in order to increase numbers of Republican seats.

“These districts are created to favor one side or the other. With no well-known, well-funded opponents it’s extremely difficult to get any momentum in these districts that are rigged,” Foreman said. “The districts are crafted to favor one side or one. We have a handful of districts that are likely to change.”

The state includes the state’s 20 Republican and 8 Democratic representatives, but the majority of voters do not lean too heavily towards the GOP. In a survey of Florida likely voters, in an poll conducted in April Florida Atlantic University survey 47% said they’d be a Republican in Congress and 39 percent declared themselves Democratic.

A variety of independent groups which evaluate U.S. House races put nearly all South Florida contests solidly in the hands of the group currently in control of the district.