JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Longtime U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown has lost her re-election bid in her radically redrawn 5th Congressional District.
Al Lawson, a former state senator from Tallahassee, defeated Brown in the Democratic primary for a district that now stretches from Downtown Jacksonville west along the Florida-Georgia border to Leon County.
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“Thank you to the voters of Florida’s 5th Congressional District for inviting me into your homes and businesses, sharing your stories, and giving me the great honor of being a candidate for Congress," Lawson said in a statement Tuesday night. "We are bolstered by the groundswell of support underneath us thanks to this evening’s good news.”
A third Democrat, LaShonda Holloway, was also vying for Brown's seat. Lawson will face Republican Glo Smith in the November general election.
Brown said she was proud that she had severed her constituents well during her 24 years in Congress, and 10 years before that in the Florida House of Representatives.
"It's been an honor serving the people, and they're going to have a new representative," Brown said. "I don't feel bad tonight because I know I've done the best I could."
Brown carried Duval and Columbia counties, but Lawson was ahead in the nine other counties in the redrawn district.
Not only did Brown run in a district drawn to cover thousands of voters she had never represented, but she was indicted in July on 22 federal charges that include conspiracy, mail and wire fraud and violation of tax laws.
Brown and her chief of staff, Ronnie Simmons, are accused of using an unregistered charity to raise $800,000 that prosecutors said they used as a personal "slush fund."
Brown's trial on the federal corruption charges was delayed until at least November after a third set of attorneys withdrew from the case last week.