Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick
U.S. Representative from FL, District 20
Analytics
Biography
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is a Democratic U.S. Representative from Florida's 20th District and the first Haitian American Democrat elected to Congress from Florida.
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is the U.S. Representative for Florida's 20th Congressional District, a Democrat first elected in a January 2022 special election to succeed the late Alcee Hastings and currently serving her third term representing a heavily Black and Caribbean-American South Florida district covering parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties. Born in Brooklyn to Haitian immigrant parents and raised in Queens, she moved to Hollywood, Florida at age 13. Cherfilus-McCormick earned a B.A. in political science and government from Howard University and a J.D. from St. Thomas University School of Law. She worked as vice president for operations and later CEO of Trinity Health Care Services, a family-founded home health care company. She became the first Haitian American Democrat elected to Congress from Florida and the second Haitian-American elected to Congress overall. In the 119th Congress, she serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs as Ranking Member of the Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, focusing on healthcare access, veterans, and Haitian and Caribbean policy.