The Adrienne Arsht Center is one of the biggest performing arts centers in the United States, located in a ritzy downtown Miami neighborhood that will be the center of attention when 20 Democrats running for president debate for the first time this week.
But the debate will also take place in Florida’s poorest congressional district, which has the 11th lowest median income out of 435 congressional districts nationwide. It’s also home to the country’s largest Haitian community and includes neighborhoods like Overtown and Liberty City, and the city of Miami Gardens, with the third highest percentage of African-American residents of any U.S. city over 100,000 people.
Frederica Wilson represents Florida’s 24th Congressional District in Washington, and the 76-year-old educator-turned-lawmaker is in the majority party for the first time in her 21-year political career after Democrats flipped the House last year. The issues that matter to voters in Wilson’s district differ from most other parts of Miami-Dade County, where Cuban Americans are the dominant ethnic and political force and 2020 candidates descend on wealthy areas like Coral Gables and Miami Beach to raise campaign cash.
Read more at our news partner the Miami Herald.