FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz entered the final stretch of a short but bruising Democratic primary campaign with an enormous financial advantage over her four opponents.

After a strong fundraising quarter, newly filed finance reports show Wasserman Schultz had $2.8 million in her campaign account seven weeks before the Aug. 18 primary — more than six times the campaign cash of the other four candidates combined.

At the same time, former U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who resigned from Congress in April and is attempting a comeback, filed a report showing her campaign account is virtually empty. The balance in her campaign account on June 30 was $2,552.

Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign had barely enough money to cover the $10,440 fee candidates are required to pay the state to get on the ballot.

Records show her campaign paid the fee on June 10. The next day, the report shows she lent $10,000 of her own money to the campaign.

Wasserman Schultz, Cherfilus-McCormick and three other candidates — Luther Campbell, Dale Holness and Elijah Manley — are competing for the Democratic nomination in a new version of the 20th Congressional District. The territory is so overwhelmingly Democratic that the winner of the primary is virtually guaranteed to win the November general election.

Campaign money doesn’t guarantee victory. The candidates have been meeting with voters, appearing before groups, placing yard signs and touting endorsements.

Still, finances are a factor, and the reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show the money race in the 20th District, which was reconfigured this year to lie entirely within Broward County, isn’t at all competitive for the final push to the primary.

The reports provide some insight into how the candidates are operating, and their strengths and weaknesses.

— Manley took in almost 2.5 times what Holness took in during the quarter. But he also spent much more than Holness.

The result: Holness ended the quarter with more than nine times the amount of cash Manley had for the final stretch.

— When he announced in February, Campbell said his celebrity and national profile would help him raise money for his campaign.

“I’m going to have a lot of money,” he said in February. Campbell exploded in public consciousness decades ago as leader of the rap group 2 Live Crew, and he said “every artist” that he produced “will be donating to this campaign.”

His quarterly campaign report showed contributions of $73,700 for the quarter. Only Cherfilus-McCormick reported raising less.

Wasserman Schultz

Wasserman Schultz is the senior Democrat in the Florida Congressional Delegation and a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. She is running for a 12th term.

She had $2.5 million in her campaign account on April 1. She took in $643,600 and spent $347,800 during the next three months, leaving her with $2.8 million on June 30.

She brought in an average of $7,000 a day for the 91 days of the quarter.

(Spending figures sometimes include relatively small amounts for items such as refunding campaign contributions.)

Holness

Holness is a former Broward County commissioner, who served a term as county mayor, and previously a Lauderhill city commissioner. He lost two previous Democratic congressional primaries to Cherfilus-McCormick; one of those losses was just five votes out of 49,082 cast.

He had $312,700 in his campaign account on April 1. He took in $74,300, spent $56,300 and had $330,600 at the end of the quarter. He also reported $161,000 in outstanding loans of his own money that he made to the campaign before April 1.

He raised an average of $800 a day during the quarter.

Manley

Manley is a progressive activist who has unsuccessfully run for state representative and Broward School Board. He entered the race when the 20th District was configured differently and Cherfilus-McCormick was a sitting congresswoman running for reelection.

Manley has been a prolific fundraiser, with receipts totaling $955,000 over the course of his campaign, but also has a high burn rate, which means the campaign has spent almost everything it has taken in.

He had $22,900 in his campaign account on April 1. He took in $175,500 during the quarter, spent $162,400 and ended with $36,000 in cash. He also reported $33,400 in outstanding debts and obligations.

He took in an average of $1,900 a day during the quarter.

Campbell

Campbell, who in recent years has been a civic activist, youth football coach and podcaster, will appear on the ballot using his moniker “UncleLuke.” He ran for mayor of Miami-Dade County in 2011, finishing in fourth place with 11% of the vote.

Campbell considered challenging Cherfilus-McCormick in 2024, but opted not to make the race. She was automatically returned to office that year without facing voters because no candidate came forward to challenge her.

He had $26,000 in his campaign account on April 1. He took in $73,700, spent $44,000 and reported $55,700 in cash on hand at the end of the quarter. He reported $7,850 in debt, representing a loan he previously made to his campaign.

His receipts averaged $800 a day during the quarter.

Cherfilus-McCormick

Cherfilus-McCormick won a special congressional election in January 2022, and full terms later in 2022 and in 2024. She’d previously lost primary challenges to then-U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, who died in 2021.

Cherfilus-McCormick resigned on April 21, minutes before the House Ethics Committee was set to decide what sanction, possibly expulsion, to the full House. Its bipartisan adjudicatory subcommittee found in March she had committed 25 ethics violations, including breaking campaign finance laws.

The former congresswoman has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has entered a not guilty plea to federal criminal charges, some of which overlap with the House ethics case.

Previous campaign reports show Cherfilus-McCormick’s fundraising stalled after the indictment was announced on Nov. 19. Previous reports also showed the campaign paid her criminal defense attorney at the time $198,000 late in 2025 and early in 2026.

On the most recent report, filed last week for the three months that ended June 30, Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign said she had zero cash on hand to start the quarter on April 1. She reported raising $16,100, loaned her campaign $10,000, and disbursed $23,600. The report said she had $2,552 in her campaign account on June 30.

Her previous campaign finance report showed a cash balance of $11,080.91 on March 31. And her previous campaign report showed she had debts totaling $4.39 million.

The previous debt included $3.7 million she lent to the campaign, mostly for her 2021 special primary election and 2022 special general election and $729,210 in other unpaid bills, mostly to law firms.

The latest report shows debt of just the newest $10,000 loan.

Excluding the loan, the report shows she took in an average of $177 a day during the quarter.

The contest

A confluence of events — the ethics allegations, Cherfilus-McCormick’s resignation and Florida redrawing the boundaries of congressional districts — led to the acrimonious Democratic primary in the 20th District.

Earlier this year, Republicans in the Florida Legislature ratified Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposal to revamp the state’s congressional districts. President Donald Trump had previously told Republican-controlled states he wanted them to change their congressional districts with the aim of electing more Republicans and fewer Democrats.

South Florida was among the most affected. Wasserman Schultz’s current district was chopped up into five pieces. One part went to the reconfigured 20th District, the only one with territory entirely in the county.

The DeSantis aide who drafted the map crammed as many Democrats as possible into the 20th District, which made the adjacent districts more Republican-oriented. In doing so, he included most of the county’s African American and Caribbean American communities.

Campbell, Cherfilus-McCormick, Holness and Manley, all of whom are Black, along with other Black political leaders, didn’t want Wasserman Schultz, who is white, to run there for reelection.

Self-assessments

Wasserman Schultz and Manley said their contributions from people giving small amounts show their campaigns are the ones resonating with voters.

Wasserman Schultz said via an emailed statement: “I’ve spoken directly with so many District 20 voters all across Broward, and I’m very thankful and encouraged by the response to my campaign. I’m equally proud of the thousands of small-dollar donors in Broward and across Florida who’ve gotten behind us. Combined, it shows voters want someone who will take on Trump and has the experience and proven record of fighting — and delivering — for Broward’s families every day.”

Manley said via text he was “proud that we continued our grassroots fundraising success. Thousands of people contributed to our campaign in Q2, including a record number of small dollar donors from Broward County.”

He said some of his competitors “struggled to make an impact financially, because they don’t offer anything of substance.” He said Cherfilus-McCormick was affected by something else: “Sheila can’t raise money because she is indicted and no one in their right mind would give her any cash.”

The Campbell, Cherfilus-McCormick and Holness campaigns didn’t respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Republicans

The district is so Democratic that winning the primary is tantamount to winning the general election.

— In the 2024 presidential election, Trump finished 39 points behind Democrat Kamala Harris in the new 20th District’s precincts, data analysts have reported.

— The partisan voting index from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the district as D-plus-20, which means it performed 20 points more Democratic than the nation during the last two presidential contests.

— Independent ratings, from Cook, Inside Elections and the University of Virginia Center for Politics, all rate it as a solid or safe Democratic district.

Four candidates will be on the Aug. 18 Republican primary ballot.

Brent Andersen organized his campaign committee on May 14, ten days after DeSantis signed the state’s new congressional district map into law.

Between then and June 30, he raised $62,100 and spent $15,600, leaving him with $46,600 on June 30. He was in a much better financial position than the other three candidates.

Lateresa “LA” Jones: Had $25 on April 1, raised $600, lent her campaign $10,400, spent $10,900, ending with $130 on June 30. (The fee to qualify for the ballot is $10,440.)

Rod Joseph: Had $1,100 on April 1, 2026, raised $26,900, spent $15,900, ending with $12,100 on June 30.

Carla Spalding: Had $17,200 in bank on April 1, raised $196, disbursed $133, ending with $17,200 on June 30. The campaign also shows $70,700 in outstanding debts and obligations as of June 30.

The state Division of Elections website shows a copy of a June 11 check from “Spalding for Congress” to cover the qualifying fee to get on the ballot. The June 30 quarterly income and spending report filed with the Federal Election Commission doesn’t show that payment.

—Some figures in this news article have been rounded.

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