Lawson, Brown could end up running in different Congressional districts

FAMU alumni Alfred “Al” Lawson and Corrine Brown might not end up in a contentious primary battle in the redrawn Fifth Congressional District of Florida if Brown decides enter the election for a new seat that will be based in Central Florida.

District 5, which Brown has represented since 1992, currently runs north-south from Duval County to Orange County. But a July 9 ruling by the Florida Supreme Court ordered that District 5 be redrawn “in an east-west manner” while remaining a minority-access seat. The Florida Legislature has proposed a new district that will run from Duval to Gadsden Counties.

Lawson represented all or part of four of those counties (Gadsden, Leon, Jefferson, and Madison) in the Florida Senate from 2000 to 2010. He told WFSU that he might run for the District 5 seat next year.

Brown has filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the Florida Supreme Court’s order for a new “east-west” District 5. She says she thinks that the changes would prevent an African American from winning the seat in 2016.

But Florida Times-Union reporter Tia Mitchell has reported that there are now rumors that Brown is thinking about throwing her hat in the ring for the redrawn District 10, a new minority-access seat that would include parts of Orange County that she currently represents.

“When asked whether Brown was considering a run in District 10 instead of trying to hold on to her seat in North Florida, her spokesman David Simon passed along a statement that didn't really answer the question,” Mitchell wrote.

Mitchell added that Brown “continues to argue that the new District 5 is unlikely to elect a black Democrat. Rep. Janet Adkins' seemed to lend credibility to those concerns when, during a private meeting of Republicans, she said inmates were packed into Brown's new district and can help flip it Republican.”

In either District 5 and District 10, Brown is likely to face another African American opponent who previously won a Democratic nomination for Congress. Lawson won the Democratic nomination for District 2 in 2012, but lost in the general election to Republican Steve Southerland.

Val Demings, a former Orlando police chief, has said that she will enter the Democratic primary in District 10. She previously won the Democratic nomination for District 10 in 2012, but came up short in her general election contest against Republican Dan Webster.

Demings is also part of the FAMU family like Brown. She is a proud “Rattler Mom.” All three of her sons attended FAMU even though she and her husband, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings, earned their undergraduate degrees from Florida State University.