Jim Rosica
Former state Sen. Al Lawson on Tuesday said he will run for the state’s reconfigured 5th Congressional District that now stretches east-west from Jacksonville through Tallahassee to rural Gadsden County.
The former state lawmaker said he “will officially announce and file for Congress in January,” according to a news release.
“North Florida needs a strong, progressive voice in Washington to protect those issues important to our families,” he said. “I fought for our communities while serving in our state Capitol, and I will continue to fight for North Florida’s working families in Congress.”
Lawson, a 67-year-old Tallahassee Democrat, served 18 years in the Florida House of Representatives, followed by a decade in the state Senate, before being term-limited in 2010. He called himself “a proven fundraiser and campaigner.”
He is now a registered lobbyist representing Excellence in Education National, a school choice organization, and the county commissions for Leon and Gadsden counties.
Lawson likely won’t face incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, who said she plans to move to Orlando to run for the redrawn district now held by Republican Daniel Webster, which now is a safe Democratic seat.
The Florida Supreme Court this month OK’d a new congressional district map that shifts the 5th District from a north-south Jacksonville-Sanford run to the east-west configuration. The new CD 5 is Democratic like the old one, but at the cost of the 2nd Congressional District, which lost its Democratic base in Gadsden and Leon counties.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, CD 2’s current holder, has yet to announce plans for her political future, but the newly configured district is now a safe Republican seat.
First-term Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum also has said he is considering a run for the new seat.
