Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick speaks with journalists after being declared the winner of the South Florida 20th Congressional District in November 2021. Photo by John McCall/Sun Sentinel/TNS/Abacapress.com
By Ebony Joseph,
@WheresEbony
Producer
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the newest member of the House of Representatives and the first Haitian from Florida to join Congress, is taking office at a critical time for Haitian politics.
In recent years, a series of natural disasters, a presidential assistantion, and an uptick in gang violence and kidnappings have threatened the country’s democracy. Cherfilus-McCormick, who is also the first woman to represent her district, said her special election win comes with a certain kind of responsibility for the Haitian community in her district and elsewhere.
Nearly half a million Haitian Americans call Florida home, giving the state the largest population of the diaspora. For the first time in nearly 50 years since Haitians began migrating to Florida, they will have a voice representing them. (Mia Love, a Utah Republican
elected to the House in 2014, was the first-ever Haitian American elected to Congress.)
The PBS NewsHour spoke to Cherfilus-McCormick after her swearing-in ceremony last week to learn about her journey to Congress and what she hopes to accomplish.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
As you know, you’re the first Haitian American from Florida to be sent to Congress, and you’re also the first woman to hold this seat in your district. What’s that like?
When I see Haitian people, they're like, [in Creole] "Sheila, what’s going on? I need to talk to you.” And I’m like, “Yes mami?” Everyone is “mami” and “papi.” The expectation is that you now would be the singular voice to talk about the Haitian American experience, to talk about Haitian immigration policies. [U.S. immigration policies are] just not equally balanced when it comes to other countries. And to talk about Black and brown immigrants who are living in South Florida and immigrants who are living in Florida, period. So the responsibilities change. And it's a huge obligation to actually start redefining policy, because you meet people who want to talk about Haitian policies and tell you what Haitian policy should be. And you're like, “I've been Haitian all my life.” I've been talking to the community all my life, and I'm not here to parrot anyone.
I am here to bring that voice and understanding and cultural competency of being a Caribbean woman, being a Black woman and being a district full of minorities and being a district that suffers the same. So it’s a huge responsibility, and I'm excited for the challenge because now we get to tell our story. Even though the media consistently tries to paint us as one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere and such a disheveled country and not democratic. But when you meet Haitian people, that is not who we are at all. We're just not the people who they paint. I'm happy to take control of our narrative.
In the middle of a tense battle to get the president's agenda passed, Build Back Better had been stalled. Voting rights have been stalled. The president said that he wants to pass this legislation into chunks and get whatever pieces he can through the House and Senate. What is your stance on the matter?
We can't afford to break it down into chunks. Not right now, because what we see is that we have a Republican Party who is really bent on obstructionism. So they're going to keep trying to block everything because they have a point to prove. And so that's why I said that if you want to say that you want to change something, pull it out. Please tell the American people very plainly what you want to take up. … because we see every thing, every initiative, every bill that was supposed to go out to the American people to benefit the American people, there's always an excuse for it not to get there. So breaking it apart is going to be an excuse for the American people to end up getting zero, and we have to be very vigilant not to let that happen.
Over 25 House Democrats have announced that they will not be seeking re-election in November. The upcoming midterms are critical for Democrats to gain enough seats to pass the legislation that’s been held up for the past year. What should Democrats be doing to earn more victories?
Organizing, organizing, organizing. We have to take control of our narrative and let the entire country know what we've been fighting for, and let the entire country know what Republicans have been fighting for. Democrats have consistently been fighting to ensure that the people recover, that the people were bailed out, that the people had access to health care, that the people had access to vaccines, had access to masks, that our children were protected when they were at school. So when you look at what Republicans have been doing, they have been increasing their fight against democracy and voting rights. They've been increasing their fight against women's right to choose. They have been increasing their fight into obstructing government from even the present elections by having the [Jan. 6] insurrection. The violence that has taken over the Republican Party, the hatred that has taken over the Republican Party is dangerous. And so we have to go out there and let the people know that this is not the time for you to think about the old party. This is not the old Republican Party.
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#POLITICSTRIVIA
By Lisa Desjardins,
@LisaDNews
Correspondent
On this day in – well, on this actual day – President Joe Biden made an unexpected visit to a
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams shop in Washington, D.C. Jen Psaki, Biden’s press secretary, said the president’s favorite flavor is chocolate chip. (Though his
grandchildren have said his preference is a carton with half vanilla, half chocolate.)
Our question: Which U.S. president is credited with helping make ice cream popular in the U.S. by serving and personally recommending some recipes?
Send your answers to
[email protected] or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.
Last week, we asked: When was the current 60-vote (a three-fifths majority) requirement established?
The answer: 1975. In 1975, the Senate reduced the number of votes required for cloture from two-thirds of senators voting to three-fifths of all senators duly chosen and sworn, or 60 of the current 100 senators.
Congratulations to our winners: Dean M. Gottehrer and Rich Siegmund!
Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.