Florida State Sen. Shevrin Jones is asking voters in Broward and Miami-Dade counties to send him to Washington, and if he wins the August 18 Democratic primary for the state's 24th Congressional District, he'll almost certainly get there. He would also make history as Florida's first openly LGBTQ member of Congress.
A Historic Bid in a Reshaped District
Jones, a former chemistry teacher turned four-term state representative and two-term state senator, is running to replace Wilson, who announced her retirement just two weeks before the candidate filing deadline closed. The seat sits in a district originally drawn in 1992 to guarantee political representation for Black South Floridians. Earlier this year, Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature redrew Florida's congressional lines, and while CD24 emerged largely intact, the broader map was reshaped to concentrate Democratic voters into a handful of districts, freeing up surrounding seats for Republican gains. A DeSantis-appointed judge allowed the new map to stand for this fall's election, though a legal challenge could still find it violates Florida's Fair Districts Amendment, which bars maps drawn for partisan advantage.
None of that changes the math in CD24 itself, still the most Democratic district in the state. That means the winner of the crowded August primary will almost certainly be sworn in come January, making this race the real contest.
From Kindergarten Confession to Political Force
Jones traces his political instincts to childhood in Carol City and later Carver Ranches, where his father eventually served as mayor of West Park for fifteen years. Raised in what he calls a strict, conservative, faith-centered household, Jones says he knew he was gay as early as kindergarten but didn't come to terms with it publicly until years later, after college, marriage, and a period of what he describes as internal unease that he couldn't ignore.
He came out while serving in the Florida House, not through a press conference but by allowing Equality Florida, the state's leading LGBTQ advocacy group, to include him in a list of endorsed openly gay candidates. A subsequent Miami Herald interview filled in the rest of the story. He went on to win reelection unopposed and later became Florida's first openly LGBTQ state senator, a distinction Equality Florida Action has called historic as it now backs his congressional bid.
This moment calls for bold leadership. It calls for a fighter. And I've never been one to sit and be a spectator when things look bad.
Shevrin Jones
Jones says his approach to his identity has always been about substance over spectacle. He doesn't hide who he is, he says, but he also doesn't lead with it.
I always tell people: when I walk into a room, you know I'm a Black man before you know I'm a gay man. But being transparent has worked for me.
Shevrin Jones
The Primary Fight
Jones enters the final stretch as the frontrunner in most polling, backed by sixteen state lawmakers and the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida. But the race has gotten sharp. His chief rival, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Oliver Gilbert, carries Wilson's endorsement, even as Gilbert has drawn criticism of his own for backing a Republican state House candidate and for accepting donations from a company tied to Florida's Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention facility. Another opponent is the son and grandson of the two Democrats who held the seat before Wilson.
Jones has faced his own scrutiny. Gilbert has attacked him over donations from GEO Group, the private prison operator, which Jones has said he'll return. Critics have also pointed to a committee vote that allowed a bill renaming Palm Beach International Airport after President Donald Trump to advance, even though Jones ultimately voted against the measure both in later committee sessions and on the Senate floor.
Our Read
What stands out about Jones's story isn't just that he could become Florida's first openly LGBTQ member of Congress in a state that has spent the last several years passing some of the country's most aggressive anti-LGBTQ legislation. It's that he's built a career by refusing to let his sexuality become either a liability or a talking point. He credits delivering results, not disclosure, for the trust he's earned even among skeptical clergy and constituents. That's not a strategy every queer candidate can or should replicate, and Florida's political map is still stacked against broader LGBTQ representation statewide. But in a district drawn to concentrate Democratic votes rather than dilute them, Jones's candidacy is a reminder that representation gains sometimes come through the cracks redistricting leaves open, not despite them.
Source: Metro Weekly
Cover photo: Florida House of Representatives, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
