Lawson, Brown both running in new North Florida Congressional district

Yesterday, U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown said that she will seek reelection in the redrawn Fifth Congressional District of Florida (CD5). The announcement came one day after she lost a federal lawsuit against the new map approved by the Florida Supreme Court.

Brown, a FAMU alumna, is facing a challenge from FAMU alumnus and former Florida Senate Minority Leader Alfred “Al” Lawson. They are now both seeking the Democratic nomination in the primary that is scheduled for August 30, 2016.

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. 

Rumors had swirled that Brown was thinking about jumping into the race for Central Florida’s new District 10 (CD10) seat in Central Florida if her federal lawsuit against the redrawn version of her current District 5 (CD5) failed. But the Democratic Party establishment took steps to apparently discourage her making that switch.

U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee endorsed former Orlando Police Chief Val Demings for the CD10 seat in February. Demings is a proud “Rattler Mom.” All three of her sons attended FAMU.

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.”

Brown still hasn’t closed the door on the possibility of appealing her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. But a Tuesday article by Tallahassee Democrat political reporter Bill Cotterell shows that she has now backtracked on her claim that an African American Democrat can’t win the CD5 election.

Cotterell reported that “even [Brown] admits she can probably win in the reconfigured district, which hugs the Georgia border from Jacksonville to Chattahoochee.”