AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTFour candidates running in a historically Black district risk dividing the Black vote and losing to Ms. Wasserman Schultz, who is white.Listen · 8:20 min After Republicans redrew her district to favor their party, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz decided to run in a nearby historically Black district, pitting her against some Black Democrats in the state.Credit...Eric Lee/The New York TimesJune 14, 2026, 5:01 a.m.

ETFour Black Democrats running for Congress in the same South Florida district met last week for a highly unusual discussion. Should three of them drop out and rally around a consensus Black candidate in the Democratic primary against Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz?Ms.

Wasserman Schultz, who is white, had announced a few weeks earlier that she would run in the safely Democratic 20th Congressional District in Broward County, after Republican state lawmakers redrew Florida’s congressional map and eliminated her seat.But the 20th District is historically Black and has elected a Black representative for decades.

The Black Democrats running felt affronted by Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s decision to enter the race, especially with a spate of Republican gerrymanders across the South this spring almost certain to reduce Black representation in the House.The race to redistrict ahead of the midterm elections has forced Democratic candidates in Republican-led states to make rushed decisions about where to run based on cold electoral math, as the number of winnable districts has shrunk.

In Florida — a state that sends 28 representatives to Congress, and where 43 percent of voters cast ballots in 2024 for Kamala Harris — the Republican-drawn map cut the number of Democratic-leaning seats from eight to four.Nowhere in the state has Democrats’ dilemma been more evident than in South Florida.

Ahead of Friday’s candidate-qualifying deadline, Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s announcement turned Democrat against Democrat.The 20th District includes most of Broward County’s African American and Caribbean American communities. So the four Black Democrats huddled last Monday, thinking that, if they consolidated behind one of them, he or she might have a chance of defeating Ms.

Wasserman Schultz, an 11-term incumbent and a former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee who has far out-raised them all.Patricia Mazzei is the lead reporter for The Times in Miami, covering Florida and Puerto Rico.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT