The November 2 Democratic primary to replace the late Rep. Alcee Hastings (FL-20) won't generate the same attention as higher-profile races that night, or that the Sanders/AOC vs. Clinton/Clyburn proxy war in Ohio's 11th CD did in August. But a traffic jam of South Florida politicians vying to replace Hastings could give an opening to a free-spending progressive outsider who was until recently viewed as a gadfly.
GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis scheduled the general election (a formality here) for January 11, 2022, a full nine months after Hastings passed away in April. That means the vacancy will persist through the rest of 2021's high-stakes legislative fights, costing Democrats a vote.
It's a golden ticket race: this Black majority Ft. Lauderdale seat voted for President Biden by 55 points, so whoever wins could end up serving in Congress for a long time. And in a sign of how restless Democratic base voters have become, even more moderate, Biden-aligned contenders in this 11-way field are taking the Biden administration to task on the slow pace of infrastructure talks and deportation of Haitian
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