U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has endorsed Val
Demings’ bid for the CD10 Democratic nomination. Demings, a former Orlando
police chief, previously won the Democratic nomination for CD10 in 2012, but
came up short in her general election contest against Republican Dan Webster.
The newly redrawn CD10 is now a minority access district with about 50 percent
black voters.
“Val Demings is the exact kind of public servant we need in
Congress to help solve some of the toughest issues facing our country today,”
Pelosi said in her endorsement statement.
Daily Kos called Pelosi’s decision to endorse Demings a “rare move” and noted that “Pelosi doesn’t usually get involved in contested Democratic primaries.” It added that the Pelosi’s decision “is likely aimed at nudging state Sen. Geraldine Thompson out of the race, and/or trying to convince Rep. Corinne Brown to stay put in the 5th District rather than try her luck here.”
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.
CD5, which Brown has represented since 1992, ran north-south
from Duval County to Orange County until the Florida Supreme Court voted 5-2 on
December 2 to approve a new set of Congressional district maps in compliance
with the Fair Districts Amendment. The new maps included a redrawn District 5
that runs from Duval to Gadsden Counties. The new CD5 remains a minority-access
seat with about 45 percent black voters.
Brown has been highly critical of the new version of her
district.
“District 5 [the proposed district]: They knew when they
drew it that it would not elect an African-American nor would it elect a
Democrat,” she said in a quote published by the Florida Times-Union. “I have no
idea why they drew that district.”
But FAMU alumnus Alfred “Al” Lawson, who has declared his
intention to run for the CD5 seat, thinks an African American Democrat can win the redrawn district.
“I’ve never had a district that was more than 26 or 28
percent African American. So I’m not concerned about a minority-access seat. I
never had one,” he said in a quote published in POLITICO Florida.