Voters in Broward County wrapped up the third day of early voting Monday, as candidates seeking to represent Florida’s 20th Congressional District continued making their case to voters.

The Democratic primary field includes several candidates offering different visions for the district, which stretches across central Broward County and includes parts of Fort Lauderdale, north into Tamarac, Coral Springs and Deerfield Beach.

The District 20 seat has been vacant since the resignation of Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick earlier this year before a congressional hearing tied to a House Ethics Committee investigation. The committee found she committed numerous campaign finance and reporting violations, including allegations she stole millions in federal funds and funneled some of the money into her campaign.

She is also facing federal criminal charges accusing her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds and using the money to buy items such as a 3-carat yellow diamond ring.

Cherfilus-McCormick has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges and says she is not guilty of ethics violations, either.

Despite the drama, Cherfilus-McCormick is running for the seat again.

“The district is still behind me,” she said. “We are still fighting and we are winning, and we are going to win this election and show everybody that you can’t intimidate us by falsely accusing us and think we are going to walk away.”

Dale Holness, another familiar face in District 20, is also running for the seat

Holness served on the Broward County Commission and was the county’s mayor, and in 2020 he lost the District 20 race by five votes to Cherfilus-McCormick.

He ran for the district seat against Cherfilus-McCormick again in 2022 and again lost the primary, this time by nearly 27,000 votes.

Holness focused his campaign message on economic issues, including tax reform and education funding.

“We must rebuild America’s middle class,” Holness said. “We rebuild that by reforming our tax code. Early childhood education funding must be expanded. The child tax credit must be expanded.”

Longtime Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is also running for the seat, after redistricting altered her current seat in District 25.

Wasserman Schultz, who also previously represented District 20 and District 23, highlighted efforts to address affordable housing and blight within the district. Dilapidated, rundown hotels in Broward, she says, can be repurposed.

“The county came to me with an idea that we could get federal funds to purchase some of those hotels and refurbish and renovate them,” Wasserman Schultz said. “No longer use them as hotels, but convert them into transitional housing.”

Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell, former 2 Live Crew rapper, businessman and community activist, is also running for the seat.

Campbell criticized his opponents as career politicians.

“The career politicians that I’m running against, combined total of 62 years of all of them,” Campbell said. “People say, ‘Oh, they have experience.’ I say, experience of doing what? Nothing.”

Also among the candidates is Elijah Manley, 27, the youngest person in the race. Manley said he hopes to bring a fresh approach to Washington.

“As a progressive coming into Washington, hopefully, I want to focus on how we get things done for people,” Manley said. “I want to be an independent voice fighting for affordability, not bickering and yelling right to left.”

Race and representation have also emerged as topics in the contest. A Black representative has held the seat for decades. Wasserman Schultz is the only white Democratic candidate in the field.

Though the district leans heavily Democratic, there are several Republicans running in the Aug. 18 primary, including Brent Andersen, Lateresa Jones, Rod Joseph and Carla Spalding.