Florida Democrat targeted by DeSantis struggles to stay in Congress

“I’m Al Lawson. I need your help,” he’d been repeating all day. But Belgard wasn’t offering any as she criticized Democrats and President Joe Biden. Lawson countered that he steered millions of federal dollars to the area and made a vow: “I won’t give up on you for nothing.”

“If you became a Republican, I’d vote for you all day long,” retorted Belgard.

That exchange summed up Lawson’s fundamental problem: He’s a lifelong Democrat whose congressional district — a near- majority Black district — was dismantled by DeSantis this spring. The governor’s redistricting plan not only eliminated Lawson’s seat but also put the entire state capital, and Lawson’s Tallahassee home, in the district now held by GOP Rep. Neal Dunn, who is from Panama City. It was a move designed to give Florida Republicans a 20-8 seat advantage over Democrats.

Several voting and civil rights groups have filed legal challenges against DeSantis’ redistricting efforts in state and federal court but neither are expected to be resolved any time soon.

Instead of retreating, or ending his political career, the 74-year-old Lawson blasted DeSantis’ involvement in redistricting and announced he would challenge Dunn even though the revamped district went for former President Donald Trump over Biden by 11 points in 2020.

“I still had it in my blood,” explains Lawson, who noted that he represented many of the rural counties in the newly-formed congressional district during his 10-year career in the state Senate.

Lawson, whose Republican colleagues in the Florida Legislature would joke with him about his never-ending quests to get money for a rural fire department, has staked part of his campaign on a throwback appeal that stressed how much state and federal money he’s secured for residents over the years.

Despite pleas from his fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus, national Democrats have provided little funding for his campaign. He said he told his colleagues in D.C. that “I want to know if I really am a member of the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.] You all haven’t given me anything.”

“You guys could give me $25,000 and I’d be OK,” Lawson said in an interview.

In this rare member-on-member matchup, Dunn has outraised Lawson more than two-to-one. Campaign filings show that Dunn has pulled in nearly $1.59 million, compared to the nearly $600,000 Lawson has collected.

North Florida just a few years ago was home to conservative Democratic voters who would split their tickets between Republicans for president and hometown Democrats. But Trump’s ascent led to a “major realignment” of the region, said Matt Isbell, a Democratic analyst and data consultant. Calhoun County, the home of Blountstown where Lawson was campaigning, had twice as many Democrats as Republicans in 2016. Not anymore. Calhoun and several other counties in the region now have more GOP voters.

“The window is rapidly closing,” Isbell said. “When I start tracking local party affiliation — this whole region — was blue. Now there’s barely any of that left. … We’re rapidly hitting the point in north Florida where the only…