As legal and ethical troubles for Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick escalated, financial support for her reelection campaign plummeted.

The most recent campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that contributions to Cherfilus-McCormick all but ended after the Broward-Palm Beach county Democrat’s indictment was announced on Nov. 19.

From Oct. 1 through Nov. 19, her campaign raised $116,000 in contributions greater than $200 each, or from political action committees.

Post indictment, her campaign reported just two such contributions through Dec. 31, totaling $1,800.

The dramatic drop-off from the first seven weeks of the quarter to the last six weeks could be a result of donors shying away from the indicted congresswoman, her being too busy to court donors, or a combination of both.

Legal bills

As her campaign income went down, her spending on legal expenses has gone up.

The federal indictment charges that she stole money that had been overpaid to her family-owned health care company when she was its CEO during the COVID-19 pandemic and laundered the proceeds, with much of the money used to help fund her first successful campaign.

She has been charged with conspiracy to commit theft of government funds, money laundering, make and receive straw donor contributions, and make a false and fraudulent statement on a tax return, according to the indictment.

Cherfilus-McComick has been under scrutiny by House investigators for most of her time in Congress. On Jan. 29, the House Ethics Committee released a report from an investigative subcommittee that “revealed substantial evidence of conduct consistent with the allegations in the indictment, as well as more extensive misconduct” including violation of federal laws and regulations and ethical standards.

Cherfilus-McCormick has consistently denied any wrongdoing. On Tuesday, she entered a not guilty plea to the federal criminal charges.

Her legal situation has had a significant impact on Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign finances.

The campaign’s largest single expense for the 2025, finance reports show, was a payment of $100,000 to Miami attorney David Oscar Markus for “legal fees” on Nov. 24, five days after the indictment was announced.

Markus and two other lawyers at his firm issued a statement on Cherfilus-McCormick’s behalf the night the Justice Department announced the indictment, and he was with her at some of her initial appearances in federal court in Miami.

Markus has represented prominent clients, including Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate and girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking in connection with Epstein. At the beginning of February, Markus withdrew from representing Cherfilus-McCormick and an attorney from a different firm took over representation.

On Nov. 6, less than two weeks before Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted, the campaign paid $10,000 in legal fees to Verdi & Ogletree. Among the practice areas the Washington, D.C., firm’s website describes is congressional ethics and investigations, and criminal defense.

In addition, reports show, her campaign had outstanding unpaid legal bills that totaled at least $650,000 as of Dec. 31 — more than six times the amount of cash the campaign had in its bank account at the end of the year.

—$57,510 to the law firm Ice Miller incurred during the fourth quarter.

On Jan. 20, D. Michael Stroud, an Ice Miller attorney, filed a response with the House Ethics Committee stating that Cherfilus-McCormick “disputes and refutes the allegations and report” of the investigative subcommittee. He filed a motion seeking to dismiss the proceedings and, if that motion is not granted, a motion to pause any further House ethics proceedings until the criminal matter is resolved.

—$549,500 to the prominent election law firm Elias Law Group in Washington, D.C.

That debt has been owed for months, and represents previous legal work, including $483,500 for work before 2025 and $66,000 incurred during the first quarter of 2025.

—$56,177 for legal fees owed to Kaiser, another Washington, D.C., law firm. Previous campaign reports show it is an outstanding bill from the first quarter of 2025.

Other candidates

In addition to legal challenges, Cherfilus-McCormick faces political challengers.

Former Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness, who lost congressional primaries to Cherfilus-McCormick in 2021 and 2022 and is running again for the Democratic nomination this year, reported more campaign cash at year’s end than the incumbent.

Another Democrat, political activist Elijah Manley, who has lost several previous campaigns for office, raised an extraordinary amount of money — but because of heavy spending on expenses related to raising money, he had almost no campaign money left as of Dec. 31.

Potential Democratic candidate Luther Campbell hasn’t yet announced his intentions. As leader of the rap group 2 Live Crew, Campbell — known as Luke Skyywalker and later Uncle Luke — was acquitted of obscenity charges by a Broward County jury in 1990, a battle that helped make him a pivotal player in First Amendment rights of artists. More recently he’s been a civic activist, podcaster and successful youth football coach.

Campbell has a large national following and prominent friends in the worlds of politics and entertainment, which could provide a major fundraising advantage.

It’s unclear if the 20th Congressional District will even be in existence in anything like its current configuration by the time the candidates need to officially qualify in the spring to get on the ballot.

It’s currently configured to combine most of the African American and Caribbean American communities in Broward and Palm Beach counties into one district. It is the Democratic congressional district in Florida and one of the most heavily Democratic in the nation.

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 Congressional District as one he wants to change.

Holness

Holness raised less than Cherfilus-McCormick or Manley — but ended the year with more cash than the other two candidates.

Holness began raising money for his campaign late last summer. From late August through the end of the year, he received $142,000 in contributions, most in the final quarter of the year.

He reported spending little, just $4,600.

On Dec. 31, the last day of the fundraising period, the candidate reported lending $43,000 of his own money to the 2026 campaign effort. (The campaign still owes the candidate a total of $90,000 in loans he provided to his unsuccessful 2021 and 2022 primary efforts. He lost both times to Cherfilus-McCormick.)

Combining the $19,000 in cash he had in his campaign account at the start of the summer, his 2025 fundraising, the new loan to himself and his low spending, Holness ended 2025 with $200,000 in his campaign account — almost double the amount Cherfilus-McCormick had and more than 33 times the amount Manley had in the bank.

Reports covering the last quarter of the year were due Jan. 31; all the candidates filed their reports on time.

Manley

Manley raised an eye-popping $668,000 in 2025 — almost double what the incumbent congresswoman raised and more than three times what Holness raised.

But he also had an extraordinarily high burn rate. The bulk of the money he took in went out the door in fundraising expenses that were used to raise more money, which was then spent on more fundraising.

For example, in addition to things like fundraising consulting services and buying digital lists, Manley’s reports for the first three quarters of the year show 125 expenditures for social media advertising on Facebook, most for $900 each.

He reported only $6,000 in cash on hand at the end of the year — just nine-tenths of 1% of what he raised. His campaign also reported $38,000 in unpaid bills, mostly for digital consulting, fundraising commissions and text messages.

Manley’s blistering fundraising pace cooled over the course of the year, the reports show.

He reported raising $274,000 in the first quarter and $201,000 in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, he raised $115,000.

During the last quarter of the year, he raised $79,000.

Cherfilus-McCormick

Cherfilus-McCormick raised relatively little for an incumbent member of Congress. She raised $345,000 last year, spent $234,000 and ended 2025 with $107,000 in her campaign account.

The last three months of the year were the best quarter of 2025 for Cherfilus-McCormick’s fundraising. She took in $119,000.

Almost all her contributions were greater than $200, the kind that virtually stopped after the indictment.

Her non-itemized contributions of $200 or less each totaled just $433 for the entire quarter. Because they’re not required to be broken out by date on campaign reports, it’s publicly unknown how much of the $433 came in before and after she was indicted.

October through December also was her heaviest spending quarter of the year, at $129,000 — including the $110,000 in legal expenses — leaving her with slightly less campaign cash on hand than she had on Sept. 30.

Cherfilus-McCormick also reported her campaign had $4.39 million in unpaid obligations.

Most of that is $3.66 million in unpaid loans to herself, with much of the debt dating to the 2021 special primary election to pick a Democratic nominee to replace the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings.

Cherfilus-McCormick spent heavily in that race and defeated Holness by just 5 votes out of 49,082 cast in the 11-candidate field. Cherfilus-McCormick and Holness finished well ahead of the other nine candidates.

She won the rest of Hastings’ term in January 2022, defeated Holness in the August primary, won a full term that November, and was reelected without opposition in 2024.

The circumstances surrounding how Cherfilus-McCormick came up with the money she lent to her campaign are a central focus of the Justice Department’s indictment and the Ethics Committee’s review.

At the end of the year, Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign also had $729,000 in other debts, mostly in legal bills.

Republicans

Two Republicans have been raising and spending money as 20th District candidates.

Rod Joseph is one. Joseph came in fourth in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 2024. He soon switched parties and endorsed U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., for reelection.

Joseph reported raising $16,000 in the fourth quarter, spending $14,000 and ending the year with $2,200 cash.

Another candidate, Sendra Dorce, reported raising $6,800, spending $900 and ending the year with $6,600.

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