'Uncle Luke' for Congress? Rapper turned civic leader Luther Campbell sounds ready to run in Florida

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Luther Campbell, the rap artist, coach, civic activist and champion of the First Amendment, is preparing to announce a run for Congress in South Florida. The biggest uncertainty is whether the district Campbell is eyeing will exist for the 2026 election.

His candidacy isn’t certain, but on social media and on podcasts, Campbell has talked repeatedly in recent days about a congressional run.

“I’m strongly considering running,” Campbell said. “I’m thinking about it seriously.”

“I’m 90% there,” he said on the "Joy Reid Show" podcast.

Campbell, a Democrat, told residents of the 20th Congressional District, which currently takes in parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, that he wants to know what’s on their minds as he makes up his.

“I want to know what your concerns are. I want to know how I can help you before I make this decision on Feb. 15th. I want to come to your house, I want to come to your community center. I want to talk to you, because it’s not about me, it’s about you. And if I’m going to make this decision to represent you, I want to represent you and the things that you need to get done.”

He’s done more than talk. Campbell also resigned Monday as head football coach at Miami Edison Senior High School. He said a campaign would take away far too much time he would devote to his players.

“Probably one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do in my entire coaching career is to tell some kids that I would not be their coach this year,” he said. “I can’t coach and run at the same time because I’m gonna be in a race with a whole bunch of people and I need to be able to run,” and spend time throughout the district.

Campbell, 65, is known as Luke Skyywalker and later Uncle Luke from his career as a rap artist. Campbell exploded in the public consciousness decades ago as the leader of the rap group 2 Live Crew.

A federal judge in South Florida declared the lyrics of its platinum-selling album “As Nasty as They Wanna Be” were obscene, a ruling eventually overturned by an appeals court.

In the meantime, then-Broward Sheriff Nick Navarro had Campbell and other members of 2 Live Crew arrested in 1990 on obscenity charges after they performed at a club in Hollywood. The jury found them not guilty.

In recent years he’s been a civic and political activist, a columnist, and has promoted and coached sports programs for inner city youth, most recently at Miami Edison, the job he just left.

Voters’ views of incumbent U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus McCormick will factor into his decision, Campbell said.

“This is a district that’s very, that’s hurting. This is a district that the congresswoman has been indicted. This is a district that needs resources,” he said, objecting to elected officials who “act like they’re bigger than what they are but they don’t bring nothing back into the community.”

Cherfilus-McComick was indicted in November on charges related to her alleged theft of $5 million in government COVID-19 relief funds, which started with an overpayment from the state. Authorities said she kept the money and she and associates used much of it to finance her 2021 primary campaign. Her family-owned company subsequently settled a civil suit with the state, agreeing to repay the money over time.

On Thursday the House Ethics Committee released an investigative subcommittee report that found “substantial evidence of conduct” described in last year’s conduct “as well as more extensive misconduct” including violation of federal laws and regulations and ethical standards.

Cherfilus-McCormick has denied wrongdoing. She hasn’t yet entered a plea to the federal charges.

Much of Campbell’s civic, philanthropic and political work has been concentrated in Miami-Dade County, something he acknowledged in one recent video. “I’m so deeply entrenched in Miami-Dade County politics. Put it this way. A lot of people get elected when I endorse them because the people of the community know the work that I put in.”

In 2011, he ran for mayor of Miami-Dade County, finishing in fourth place with 11% of the vote.

But he’s registered to vote in Miramar. One video clip he posted in recent days showed a picture of him with his hands on a police car as he’s being arrested in Broward County years ago during the 2 Live Crew case, which he won.

“The jury was selected from Broward County that said, ‘No. You will not put him in jail,” Campbell said. “My ties to Broward County are deep.”

He’s thought about running for Congress before. In 2024, he teased a run for Congress, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and set up a political action committee. He opted against running. Cherfilus-McCormick returned to office without facing the voters after no Democrat or Republican came forward to challenge her.

The 2026 landscape is significantly different.

Cherfilus-McCormick is facing negative attention as a result of the Justice Department and Ethics Committee proceedings. And other candidates are already running.

Among them are Dale Holness, a former Broward County commissioner who lost a special primary election in 2021 to Cherfilus-McCormick by five votes. Also running is civic activist Elijah Manley, who has unsuccessfully run for office before.

The political territory could be different in other ways.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republicans who control the Florida Legislature have said they want to do an unusual mid-decade redistricting of the state’s congressional seats. Republicans across the country have made similar moves in response to demands from President Donald Trump to redraw district boundaries in ways that would elect more Republicans and fewer Democrats to the U.S. House in November.

DeSantis has repeatedly cited the 20th District, represented by Cherfilus-McCormick and eyed by Campbell, as one that he wants to change. DeSantis opposes the current boundaries — which he signed into law in 2022 — because they’re drawn in a way that puts most of the African American and Caribbean American voters in Broward and Palm Beach counties in one district.

Campbell has said he’d focus on issues that matter to the livelihoods and safety of people in the district, such as jobs and clean drinking water.

On his podcast, he’s spoken out against the way immigration enforcement is being conducted by the Trump administration. “Here in America I would have never thought that we (would) be practicing Gestapo tactics that they practiced in Germany to put so many Jewish people in the concentration camps,” Campbell said on his podcast. “We’re in some dark times people. … It has to stop.”