In field this crowded, it’s hard to find future icon

Sen. Perry Thurston got to the point. “One of the things about this position is, I look at it as the leader of the Black community in Palm Beach County and Broward County,” Thurston said. “That’s a real, real big job to have.”

It is, and the long-time lawmaker from Lauderhill is one of the many faces in a crowd seeking to succeed the late Alcee Hastings in Congress. People are voting by mail and early voting starts next weekend in Broward and Palm Beach counties. The primary is Nov. 2.

More Democrats are in this race (11) than in Florida’s entire D.C. delegation (10). They filled the stage on Thursday night at a two-hour online forum sponsored by the Urban League of Broward County and Urban League of Palm Beach County. Everybody in this race needs a breakout, “wow” moment, and it didn’t help that they all replied “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes” to some predictable yes-or-no questions.

One question was how to advance Hastings’ legacy, and that sends candidates down an awkward path.

They praise Hastings as a giant and political legend, and then decry the despair and lack of progress in the 20th district, with its poverty, economic misery and health care disparities. In other words, not all has changed much. However, it must be remembered that when Hastings was elected in 1992, along with Carrie Meek of Miami and Corrine Brown of Jacksonville, there had not been one Black member of Congress in Florida since the post-Civil War Reconstruction period.

Hastings could dominate a room. He had charisma and an ability to work with the dominant, white, east-side establishment, or what was then known as the downtown power structure. He weathered a major scandal and lost a lifetime sinecure of a federal judgeship, but won a seat in Congress where he also became a vocal champion of Israel for decades.

Broward was a very different place when Hastings came to power. Whites used at-large voting for self-preservation, and that made it virtually impossible for Blacks to win county-wide. You could practically count on one hand the number of prominent Black elected officials.

Today, several dozen Black elected officials have come to power, reflecting the county’s diversity and the growth of the Caribbean community, but how has that improved people’s lives? Look around. So much has changed in Broward, yet nothing has changed.

The real challenge facing Hastings’ successor is leading the way to real change. Only one of these 11 will get a chance to be Broward’s next political icon.

Several candidates had strong moments, and you can watch it all on the Urban Leagues’ Facebook page. Broward Commissioner Dale Holness emphasized the need for minority-owned businesses and jobs, and noted he’s learning to speak Creole. Commissioner Barbara Sharief promised to protect the LGBTQ+ community and defend abortion rights.

“We need to let Republicans know that a woman’s right to health care is a woman’s business,” Sharief said.

Former federal labor official Emmanuel Morel renewed his call for slavery reparations without saying how he’d pay for it. Rep. Bobby DuBose, D-Fort Lauderdale, decried a failed U.S. immigration policy “rooted in racism.” The Rev. Elvin Dowling touted his work for the National Urban League, as a Hastings aide and distributing food to the needy.

Rep. Omari Hardy, D-West Palm Beach, defined “progressive” as “progress for working-class people,” and advancing democracy in the era of the Big Lie. The emerging controversy over his stands on major Israel issues did not come up.

Thurston touted support of teacher unions and the AFL-CIO and fighting the Republicans’ agenda. In an obvious dig at Hardy, he said voters need more than “aspirational speeches ... (and) increasing Twitter followers.”

The district has 209,000 Democrats and getting their attention in a special election is not easy. Assuming a 20% turnout, that’s 40,000 votes to be divided 11 ways. If it’s close, fewer than 10,000 votes could mean victory, and the winner must immediately run for a full two-year term.

Holness, a native of Jamaica, sent a mailer to the growing “Caribbean family” in the district and made a direct appeal for their votes. “We have an opportunity that will not come this way again for a long time,” the mailer said. “Now is the time to seize the opportunity.”