FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The state LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus has snubbed two prominent South Florida allies, opting not to endorse U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Lois Frankel for reelection.

Their primary opponents didn’t get endorsed either. But the non-endorsements of Broward’s Wasserman Schultz and Palm Beach County’s Frankel stood out.

Leaders of the organization that withheld the endorsement sometimes refer to Wasserman Schultz as the “Godmother of the caucus” and the congresswoman consistently receives a score of 100 on the national Human Rights Campaign’s congressional scorecard.

Wasserman Schultz received a majority, 53%, of the votes cast at the weekend endorsement session, participants said, falling significantly short of the required two-thirds.

Frankel’s support was even less. She received endorsement votes from just 44% of those participating. Like Wasserman Schultz, she has been a longtime ally of the LGBTQ+ community, with scores of 95, 100 and 100 in the three most recent congresses.

The technical explanation is simple. “It takes a two-thirds vote and they didn’t get two-thirds,” Kristen Browde, president of the Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus, said in a telephone interview Monday.

There were multiple factors at work, sometimes intertwined, Browde and other participants said. There was a contingent of new voting members at the Saturday endorsement meeting in Orlando, and there was a desire by some to advance younger, more progressive candidates.

In Wasserman Schultz’s case, she was competing for support with Elijah Manley, who is an out gay man running as a progressive. And there are internal Democratic Party disagreements over Wasserman Schultz’s decision to run for reelection in the 20th District, which is home to many Black voters.

In Frankel’s case, she is being challenged in the primary by progressive Victoria Doyle, who spent lots of time at the caucus gathering over the weekend. Doyle’s campaign is being advised by Stephen Gaskill, a former president of the LGBTQ+ caucus. Frankel also appeared in person.

After the Aug. 18 primaries, Browde said LGBTQ+ Democrats would unite behind all their nominees.

All the South Florida districts were reconfigured by Republicans who control state government. Pockets of voters were moved around in ways that create more Republican and fewer Democratic-leaning districts, a change demanded by President Donald Trump in advance of the midterm elections.

In addition to most of the African American and Caribbean American communities in Broward, the new 20th District includes Wilton Manors, the unofficial capital of the LGBTQ+ community in South Florida, plus the Victoria Park neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale and the city of Oakland Park, which both have large numbers of LGBTQ+ residents.

Alfredo Olvera, president of the Dolphin Democrats, presided over the endorsement session on Saturday in his role as director of the caucus’ Campaign and Endorsements Committee.

He said about 50 people were voting on the endorsements. Members from throughout the state vote on all the recommendations.

District 20

“I can’t put myself in the minds of the individuals who cast their ballots. But this is a year in which, in the case of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she’s running in a district that she shouldn’t be, and there are very strong younger candidates who are longtime residents of that district, and they had support,” Browde said.

Browde said Wasserman Schultz has “huge support within the caucus, and indeed we often refer to her as the Godmother of the caucus. … She is fabulous on equality issues. She is fabulous on human-rights issues. I consider her not just a superb congresswoman but a good friend, not just to me personally but to the entire caucus.”

Michael Rajner, an LGBTQ+ community activist and one of Broward’s state Democratic committeemen, said the final vote was 53% for Wasserman Schultz to 40% for Manley. (Rajner supports both Wasserman Schultz and Frankel.)

Two other District 20 candidates, former U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and former Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness, submitted questionnaires to the LGBTQ+ caucus, but they were eliminated in first-round voting.

A fifth candidate, Luther Campbell, didn’t submit a questionnaire and wasn’t considered, even though he attended last week’s meeting of the Dolphin Democrats, the Broward LGBTQ+ political club.

Last week, Equality PAC, the political arm of the Congressional LGBTQ Equality Caucus, announced its endorsement of Wasserman Schultz, calling her “a steadfast champion for equality.”

Wasserman Schultz, a board member of the congressional equality caucus, is a regular participant in LGBTQ+ community events in South Florida. “I’m very proud I won a majority of the support of these fierce freedom fighters this weekend, because they all know I’ll help end Florida’s role as a state where LGBTQ+ hate takes root nationally. My allyship for our state LGBTQ+ community will never waver,” she said Monday in a statement about the caucus decision.

Manley said via text that he “respect(s) both organizations’ work. My focus is on earning the trust of the voters, whose endorsement ultimately means the most. I’m proud that I have a record of fighting for LGBTQ+ equality, not just when election time comes around. As an openly gay Black man in politics, the road is always steep, but I believe that people will judge me by my record and my work.”

District 23

Browde said that Frankel “is terrific. She made a good presentation, and she has tremendous support, but again, Victoria Doyle, her whole pitch was younger, more aggressive and that has appeal.”

Gaskill said Doyle prioritized outreach to the caucus.

Doyle received 52% of the vote to Frankel’s 44%, Gaskill said. “What it shows is that the caucus knows that change is happening. That was the focus of her speech, about change and the time for bold ideas and transformational changes. That resonated.”

Moskowitz, Jones

The caucus voted to endorse U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who faces progressive Oliver Larkin in the Aug. 18 primary in the new 25th District, which runs along the coast from Delray Beach to Miami Beach.

“Jared has a pretty decent record when it comes to equality issues,” Browde said.

He has a 94 rating from the Human Rights Campaign. He is in his second term, and the organization has only posted ratings for Moskowitz from his first term, 2023 and 2024.

On Monday, the South Florida LGBTQ+ organization SAVE said it is endorsing Moskowitz.

SAVE decides on candidates after reviewing questionnaires and interviewing candidates, and the process hasn’t finished, Miles Davis, the organization’s director of advocacy & communications, said via email. He said Wasserman Schultz and Manley have completed their questionnaires and would be interviewed by SAVE’s “community endorsement panel” for the 20th District.

SAVE doesn’t issue endorsements in Palm Beach County, where the reconfigured 23rd Congressional District features the Doyle-Frankel primary.

The political arm of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, a longtime LGBTQ+ rights organization, has endorsed Frankel in the 23rd District and Moskowitz in the 25th District.

In the 24th District, which includes parts of Miami-Dade County and South Broward, the caucus endorsed state Sen. Shevrin Jones in a hotly contested Democratic primary to replace U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, who is retiring. Jones, who is the first openly gay LGBTQ Florida state senator, has also been endorsed by SAVE.

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