Former state Senator Shevrin Jones is running to succeed eight-term U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson in Congressional District 24, according to paperwork filed Thursday morning.
“It’s filed and live,” Jones, a 42-year-old Miami Gardens native, told the Phoenix. A Democrat, Jones launched his bid to replace the same-party Wilson one week after she announced her retirement — after a strange back-and-forth where she initially claimed rumors of her stepping down were “crazy.”
Hours after filing, Jones told his social media followers to join him at the Koinonia Worship Center — his parents’ Pembroke Pines church — next Tuesday for “an important announcement.”
Jones is a former chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, and served in the Florida Legislature beginning in 2012. He served four terms in the state House before winning his Senate seat in 2020. He held onto his seat during the 2024 elections, and was even set to lead the Senate Democrats in 2028 before announcing last week he wouldn’t seek reelection.
READ MORE: With U.S. Rep. Wilson stepping down, state Sen. Shevrin Jones emerges as congressional front-runner
“It’s just been a pleasure to serve people,” Jones said on the Senate floor last week, bidding farewell to his fellow lawmakers. “Now I know when I travel the state of Florida, I have friends all over the state. And while I might not be here in this building, it’s my hope, after Aug. 18, that you can visit me somewhere else — maybe in Washington, D.C.”
CD-24 is one of the last primarily Black districts in the state, and one of just four remaining Democrat-leaning sects after Gov. Ron DeSantis redrew congressional lines last month.
Jones will face off against candidates like former Miami-Dade commissioner Jean Monestime, physician Rudolph Moise, and county resident Christine Sanon-Jules in the primary.
Rep. Wilson, 83, has represented the area since 2010. Axios reported in late May that she was privately planning to retire, but she flatly denied the reporting as a “crazy rumor.”
She announced her retirement three days later.
Wilson’s departure comes as House Democrats have pressured their senior citizen members to step aside for younger candidates. Seven of these incumbents nationwide have so far been outraged by younger primary opponents.
