“This moment calls for bold leadership. It calls for a fighter. And I’ve never been one to sit and be a spectator when things look bad,” says Florida State Sen. Shevrin Jones, one of eight candidates running as a Democrat for Florida’s 24th Congressional District.
“I’m a hands-on guy. I like science. I love experiments,” the former science teacher says. “Well, this is America’s greatest experiment that we’re going through right now. I couldn’t just sit in Tallahassee and say, ‘Well, Washington, D.C. is so dysfunctional’ when there’s an open seat in Congress, or say ‘I’ll let somebody else do it.’”
Jones, who is gay, is seeking to succeed eight-term Congresswoman Frederica Wilson in a district that spans Broward and Miami-Dade counties. The original iteration of the district, which was drawn in 1992 to provide Black South Floridians political representation, was altered earlier this year to pack as many Democrats into a single district, thereby enabling the GOP to win surrounding districts and ensuring more Donald Trump loyalists will serve in the next Congress.
A judge appointed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis allowed the map to take effect for November’s election, but the map may yet be found to be unconstitutional and in violation of Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment, which states that political maps are not to be drawn using partisan data or to achieve a partisan advantage.
But regardless of any future political developments, Jones — who served four terms in the Florida House of Representatives and six years in the Florida Senate — insists he’s ready to be an advocate for under-served communities in South Florida.
His father, Eric, is the pastor at Koinonia Worship Center in Pembroke Pines, and his mother, Bloneva, was a preschool teacher. He developed a reputation for speaking out and engaging in activism at a young age.
“I was always political,” he says. “People used to call me “Mr. President” when I was a kid, because I was always fighting for other people.”
In high school, he and a friend organized a walkout after his high school tried to end a policy allowing students to go off-campus for lunch. “We were like, ‘Hell no, that’s not how you do this,’” he recalls. “So that’s where I got my kickstart in political organizing.”
The youngest of three sons, Jones was raised in Carol City, an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County that eventually became part of the city of Miami Gardens. In high school, the family moved to Carver Ranches, an unincorporated area that eventually became part of the city of West Park, where his father would serve as mayor from 2005 to 2020.
“I was raised in a strict but loving home, and a conservative home,” Jones says, “at least in the ways where a lot of kids had freedom that my brothers and I did not have. I’m not saying my parents kept us close-knit, but they were very strict and clear about our education, the people we hung out with, and how we carried ourselves.
“I don’t take anything away from them and how they raised us, but it does speak to how I grew up and how it played a role in my coming out later in life as gay, and how I hid it for a period of time,” he adds. “But it also helped me, because of my faith, navigate coming out.”
Jones attended Florida A&M University for college, majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology, before returning to South Florida to work as a chemistry teacher. But he grew frustrated that some of his students couldn’t read or write well enough to learn the material he was trying to teach, and began asking how that could have happened.
“I asked myself, ‘How did the system fail these kids?’ And my principal said ‘Politicians,’” he says. He ran for the Broward County Commission in 2010, but lost, acknowledging “I don’t think the Lord had it in His plans for me to run for that seat.” Two years later, he was elected to the State House, where he sought to fix the systems that had failed his students and members of the larger community.
Although he could have run for one more two-year term in the Florida Senate before being term-limited, Jones said that Wilson’s surprise retirement announcement — coming just two weeks before the filing deadline closed — gave him a new opportunity to consider. He was approached by people in the community who urged him to run for the seat. After consulting with his family and praying on the matter, he announced his campaign for Congress.
In the August 18 primary, his chief opponent is a county commissioner endorsed by Wilson, who has also been criticized for endorsing a Republican for a state House seat Democrats were seeking, as well as accepting donations from a company that is a state contractor for Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention camp.
Another of his opponents is the son and grandson of the last two Democrats to hold the seat prior to Wilson. As the primary approaches, Jones — who leads in most polls — has found himself being attacked over campaign donations and for committee votes allowing a bill to rename Palm Beach International Airport after President Donald Trump to advance, despite ultimately voting against the measure in subsequent committee sessions and on the Senate floor.
Jones’ coming out was unique due to its subtlety. Rather than announce it on social media or at a press conference, he decided to allow Florida’s top LGBTQ advocacy group, Equality Florida, to include him in a list of endorsements it was making of openly gay candidates. Shortly thereafter, while he was running for his fourth House term, he agreed to be interviewed by the Miami Herald, which explained his full coming out process. There was some speculation that the revelation could cost him his seat or spark a primary challenge, but Jones was reelected without opposition.
Although Jones acknowledges that, to this day, there are people — particularly in the Black community — for whom his sexuality is a net-negative, he argues that he’s won over voters by delivering for his constituents.
“If you speak to the needs of people and you’re not focusing on that, or as people say, “You’re not throwing it in our faces,” people tend to get behind you,” he says. “You also need to be smart about how you navigate it, right? The clergy didn’t support me when I ran for the State Senate. They support me now when I’m running for Congress, because I’ve delivered. And I didn’t make my sexuality my main story.”
He says that while he does not flaunt his sexual orientation, he also doesn’t deny it or act ashamed of his identity.
“I always tell people: when I walk into a room, you know I’m a Black man before you know I’m a gay man. But being transparent has worked for me. And just being honest and authentic with people has worked for me. When I speak to young LGBTQ people, I tell them, ‘When you become okay with it, you give everybody else permission to do the same.’ And that’s how I live. That’s my mantra that I live by, to this day.”
METRO WEEKLY: When did you first know you were gay, and what was your coming out process like?
SHEVRIN JONES: I was in kindergarten. I remember kissing a guy named Matthew and getting in trouble for it. I’m serious. I didn’t know what that meant when I was in kindergarten.
I never came out formally. I knew I was gay, but I knew I couldn’t be open. When I got to college, that’s when I really started exploring, and I became more confident in who I was — but not really, because I had a girlfriend whom I had proposed to. I was still living in the closet — I hate using that terminology, but I’ll use it for this conversation –- and it wasn’t until after I graduated and got married, that I realized I was unhappy. Not because I wasn’t married to an amazing person. My ex-wife, she’s phenomenal. I still talk to her to this day. But I knew I loved her so much that I couldn’t lie to her. There was an uneasiness within my own self. It didn’t settle well with me.
MW: So how did everyone else come to know?
JONES: The Miami Herald article is when everyone found out.
MW: How did you reconcile coming out with your faith, particularly as the son of a pastor?
JONES: I don’t know if reconciliation with my faith is the terminology I’d use. I think it was me becoming more in tune with who I am. Part of my faith is being honest. And so me becoming true to who I am also required me to tap into my faith. I had to, because I didn’t know how I was going to navigate this truth, because in the Christian household where I was raised, being gay was an abomination — it was seen as sinful. And so the only reconciliation that I think had to be done is reconciling with what I was taught.
I had to begin to unlearn that, but there was a battle between my faith and my truth. And I had to lean on my faith to get me to where I’m at now, to where you and I can have this honest conversation or to get me to where I can speak openly to people, or sit on panels or have discussions about it. There are people who I know who are in [the middle of] this process, who don’t have that type of courage, and it’s okay. I don’t fault people for not coming out when people want them to. It was the right thing for me. And my faith gave me the strength to be able to do it.
MW: You’re still an ordained minister.
JONES: Yeah. But let me tell you, that was hard because when I came out, my dad told me straight up, “Hey, listen, you can’t serve in the church right now. It’s hot right now. People are upset.” People left the church. People asked my dad, “How can you still let him sing on the praise team?” And my dad grew, my mom grew. My dad’s sermons started changing. He started talking about love, and talking about how we all are sinners and how there’s no sin greater than the other. People knew what he was doing. People knew that he was learning and trying to unlearn a church [teaching] that he had taught for so long that this was wrong.
MW: After 16 years in the legislature, you’re now running for Congress. When you’re speaking to people on the campaign trail, what are you hearing from them?
JONES: “It’s too expensive to live here.” “My family, we might have to move out of Florida because we can’t afford it.” “I have cancer. I got fired from my job. I only have a thousand dollars left to my name and no one seems to see me or hear me.” “I feel like politicians, you all are in it for yourself. You are not in it for people.” That’s what I’ve heard at the doors. That’s what I hear from people outside. People are not talking about anything other than the cost of living right now. And I know it seems so cliché right now, because everybody is running on affordability. Everyone’s saying that the cost of living is too high. The reality is it’s the absolute truth.
MW: People often say that Tallahassee’s very dysfunctional. And so in some sense, you’re leaving one place that’s dysfunctional to go to another place that’s equally as dysfunctional. What do you take from your experience in Tallahassee and how will you apply that to your time in Congress?
JONES: I get that Washington is dysfunctional. I do. But I also heard this in my freshman year. I heard people say, “Oh, you’re not going to get anything done in Tallahassee.” Or I’ve heard people say, “You’re just going to be a sitting duck there.” I am the king of proving people wrong. I wasn’t even supposed to be here: My mom had her tubes tied and didn’t think she was going to have a third child, but I slipped out of there. But all jokes aside, there’s a world where I absolutely believe that this can work.
I absolutely believe there’s a world where we can govern on good policy. And I’ll tell you that, in a tough legislative body, I have passed [legislation requiring] police body cameras. I have passed the “Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act” to ensure women who are incarcerated have access to free feminine hygiene products, or so women who are pregnant can’t be shackled or placed in solitary confinement. I have passed the Teddy Bridgewater Act that allows high school coaches to help their student-athletes if they don’t have money to catch the bus or get food.
I believe those are the type of bills that people can feel, see, touch. That was in a hostile environment of a legislative body, even under the leadership of Ron DeSantis who didn’t veto any of my bills. None. Because they just make sense. And do I believe I can do that in Congress? I think it’s a tad bit harder. But hard work has never turned me away from nothing.
MW: How would you classify yourself ideologically within the Democratic Party?
JONES: I am a pragmatic Democrat. I mean, people say I’m progressive-lite. Sure, I’ll take it. Or some people say I’m a moderate. I’m like, “Okay, I’ll take that.” I am the type of person that you can see something one way and I can see something another way. And you can say, “Shev, I disagree with you on everything you said.” Even if we’re talking about policy, I say, “What would make this something that you and I will both be pissed off about, but yet still can agree on?” Where are those people? Where are the pragmatic Democrats or the pragmatic Republicans? That’s who I am.
I’m the type of person who, when I look at something, asks, “Who is this hurting? If it’s hurting people, it’s not for me.” I stand on the side of humanity every single time. If it’s not benefiting people, I’m not the person. If you’re looking for the person to give big businesses more, I ain’t your guy. But if you’re the type of person who says, “I want to make sure we figure out how to give tax incentives to Ms. Johnson who’s got a mom-and-pop store down the street,” I’m your guy. Because I think the big businesses will be okay. And it’s not that I’m against them. It’s just the fact that I think Ms. Johnson’s store or Mr. Torres’ store is just a tad bit more important because the community knows them. They can talk to the manager. The cashier lives next door to them. Those are my type of people.
MW: How would you describe your stances on foreign policy?
JONES: I am a true millennial. I am looking for the quickest way for a pathway to peace in every instance. These never-ending wars are costing us trillions of dollars in our own country. We can’t pay for universal healthcare for everybody because we’re paying for unnecessary wars. I understand that we, as a country, have to protect our allies. I’m also clear on the fact that I’m a teacher, and when you benchmark or when you are evaluating, you’re looking at: “If we’re going to spend money, how is this money being spent? What is the end goal of all of this?”
I think we in America have to be smart in our foreign policy, and we cannot allow the President of the United States to continue to go rogue. The President of the United States acts as a king, and he is the guy who is acting outside of Congress to basically do what he wants. And then playing Russian roulette with our international leaders. Oh, we’re putting forth a ceasefire. Ceasefire is off. Ceasefire’s on. Ceasefire is off. It doesn’t sit well with me. I know it doesn’t sit well with the American people. So when we talk about foreign policy on my side, I think it comes with transparency. I think it comes with accountability, but should also come with benchmarking, in terms of “What does it look like for us to get out of this?”
MW: Where do you stand on health care policy? Do you support Medicare for All, a French-style system, a Nordic-style system? A public option based on Obamacare?
JONES: A public option based on Obamacare, yes, we could have had that, but the Senate messed that up back in January. And so that ship has come and gone. I am a Medicare-for-All-type of guy. I will even go to the extent to say that I believe that it’s okay for everyone to have health care. Because we should be able to pay for health care for those people who don’t have it. And I’m not talking about bad health care, I’m talking about good health care for people.
MW: This seat has a rich history, as one of three Voting Rights Act districts that were created in 1992 to provide political representation for Black people in Florida. Your district has been gerrymandered in the most recent round of Republican-led redistricting, but kept about 60% of the old 24th District’s territory. How do you see what the Supreme Court has done with the VRA and the ending of federal preclearance for some Florida counties, and how that’s affected Black representation and voting power?
JONES: Well, I represent 78% of the district now, and am the only person in this race who represents both Broward and Miami-Dade County. The need in this district is great. I’ve represented these people for 14 years. Infrastructure, housing, health care, education –- everything that the government has to offer, this district needs it. Carrie Meek fought for it. Frederica Wilson fought for it. It has to be something that we stand firm on — pushing for the needs of this district. There are small businesses in this area, like the Design District in Wynwood, North Miami, or Little Haiti, that need SBA [assistance]. They need to make sure that the red tape is cut to ensure that they have access to capital.
MW: Do you feel that the current congressional map, as drawn, is a bad map, and do you feel it violates the Fair Districts Amendment?
JONES: Hell, yes. I mean that in every sense of the word. Even the governor and his attorneys know that this map is gerrymandered. If you go back and watch when this bill came to committee — I think it went to rules — when the attorneys for the governor were asked, by me, “Can you assure me that partisan data wasn’t used to draw these maps?” The attorney said, “These maps were drawn using partisan data.” Nothing about these maps are fair, from District 24 all the way to District 1. It’s fair for the Republicans. It’s not fair for the Democrats. And forget the parties — it’s not fair to the people, because politicians are choosing their representatives and the people aren’t selecting their representatives.
MW: Given the corruption and the possibly unconstitutional things that have been pushed through by Florida lawmakers, how do you keep your faith in the political system?
JONES: Because I believe that there are good people who are coming along to fight against what the system is doing. And I’ll be honest with you: This might sound weird coming from a politician, but politicians are not going to save this country. People are. And what we’re seeing right now is people pushing back on politicians and the establishment. I absolutely think that that’s the start of people pushing back on the system because the system doesn’t work.
It’s a Catch-22 situation. Because there’s a group of people on both sides who want to tear the system down. And tearing the system down will absolutely leave marginalized people –- gay, Black, immigrants, you name it, behind. And I do think there is a world where there are opportunities for people like me and others, who are pragmatic and are willing to listen to people on both sides, to hear each other out.
MW: Because your district covers areas like Little Haiti, Allapattah, Brownsville, and Miami Gardens, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask about how the revocation of Temporary Protected Status has affected people in South Florida, particularly members of the Haitian community. How are people dealing with that, and what are you hearing from people on the ground?
JONES: People are scared. Just yesterday, Chef Creole, which is a Haitian restaurant, was raided by ICE. So people don’t want to come out. People are not walking in Little Haiti like they used to because they’re scared. That’s not immigration policy. That’s intimidation.
MW: What needs to be done to reform the way that ICE operates?
JONES: First, ICE needs to be re-imagined and how they move. ICE [officers] need to wear body cameras, like every other [law enforcement] officer does in the state of Florida. ICE needs to remove their masks, because there’s history towards wearing masks and intimidating people who are marginalized. But ICE is also not immigration policy. Detention centers are not immigration policy. Immigration policy for people with TPS is making sure that people have a pathway to citizenship, especially if they’ve been in this country for three to five years, and have shown themselves to be contributors to this economy, have shown themselves to be established with a family, a job, you name it.
But then you get people like Megyn Kelly, who makes comments like, “You don’t belong here. Go back to your effing country.” Where these are the same people who were born here, raised here, don’t know anything about Haiti, don’t know anything about Nicaragua or wherever else where people on Temporary Protected Status –- which, mind you, has been in the books since 1990 –- and sending them back to a country that we have deemed as a level four, meaning not safe to visit, is cruel.
MW: Florida has made headlines for banning books, with some counties even threatening to eliminate public libraries. We’ve also seen all Republicans push through the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida. What was that debate like behind the scenes, and how did you go back to the LGBTQ community and talk about the implications of the bill?
JONES: I just told them that this is the start of our community being attacked. This is the start of the whistleblowing of how people view our community. It started with “Don’t Say Gay,” and referring to people as “groomers,” you name it.
Republicans in Florida made it comfortable to attack our transgender brothers and sisters. They make it easy to attack the LGBTQ community across this country. We were the Petri dish of the policies that we’re seeing right now [at the national level]. And even during debate, I warned the chamber that we are going down a dangerous path, that it’s more than LGBTQ people that you will begin to go after. You make it comfortable to go after Blacks, you make it comfortable to go after immigrants, and you make it comfortable to go after others.
MW: Florida has also gone after transgender health care, attacking not only gender-affirming care for youth but placing severe restrictions on consenting adults, forcing them to sign additional waivers and overcome additional hurdles just to receive such care.
JONES: Of course. It’s crazy that you have the party of “less government” that wants to put more government [restrictions] on a group of people who they don’t agree with.
MW: We’ve also seen Florida and the federal government mount attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion, on pro-diversity initiatives, and attacking corporations with those policies. What do you make of that trend?
JONES: In 2020, after the death of George Floyd, everyone was in their homes. And in companies across this country, a mirror was put in the face of America, where we saw racism at the greatest extent because we saw a Black man get murdered on national TV. The Black community was so outraged — rightfully so. The LGBTQ community joined, progressives joined. And while people may think or thought we had forgotten about what happened to George Floyd, that wasn’t the reality. What we had was Donald Trump come in. And when Donald Trump was elected, Donald Trump made it clear he was giving a free pass for racism, homophobia, every type of phobia. And the president started going after people [and businesses] that were investing their money in social programs and social services, because conservatives felt that this was the rise of Black people discriminating against white people, this “reverse racism” type of stuff. And America believed it.
And then that went into “They’re taking your jobs.” All of these buzzwords started coming up, and the case was started being built [against DEI]. And then the President of the United States basically put a call-out to reel in these types of programs that were growing, to show that these people benefiting from them do not deserve to be in power. The president said, “Look, we [as white men] are losing power. And because of that, we need to get rid of these programs that have given [other groups] more power, given them money, given them access [to capital], given them resources.” And everyone started following suit, because the President of the United States basically said that if you’re not going to get rid of these programs, you are no longer a part of this capitalistic come-up that corporations have been used to being a part of. If you’re not going to agree with my policies, now you are not part of the “Cool Kids Club.” And some of these companies went along with it, but there are companies who didn’t, because they believe what was right is still right today.
MW: How do you hold the companies that did turn their back responsible? I look, for instance, at the Target boycott as being successful in driving Target’s shares down. Do you think there was a lesson to learn from that?
JONES: I think Target learned a large lesson. I think Target underestimated the Black dollar. And I think people still underestimate the Black dollar. And I think they’re trying to clean it up now, because not only is the president a lame duck, his policies are lame, also. I think people are seeing, excuse my language, that the President is full of shit. And I also believe that people are also seeing that these policies are not moving agendas. The sad thing is that it took a boycott for people to see it.
MW: If you win the Democratic primary, you’d be favored in the general election. Assuming Democrats come in with the House majority and can set the agenda, what would you like Democrats to focus on as top priorities?
JONES: We need to focus on the John Lewis Act. And then we also need to focus on filing legislation that’s going to put money back in people’s pockets, so they can know, “The Democrats are absolutely working on my behalf.” Congressman [Henry] Cuellar [of Texas] has a great bill — the American Consumer Tariff Rebate Act — that takes these unconstitutional tariffs, that the Supreme Court has made clear are unconstitutional, and returns the money from them back into the American people’s pockets, for people who live in a household that makes under $400,000 per year. And if you have children, you get a $125 rebate per child. But mind you, that’s the same thing the President of the United States said he was going to do that he hasn’t done yet. So Democrats should hop on it quickly. Send it over to the Senate and tell the president to sign it and put the money back in American people’s pockets, both Democrats and Republicans.
MW: Unfortunately, the way our political system works, the day after the election, the fight for 2028 will start. And I worry that Democrats will be so consumed by the ideological fights over who should be the presidential nominee that they will ignore accomplishing things or pushing a positive agenda for the party. Realizing that Florida is no longer a swing state, you may be called upon to be a “peacemaker” of sorts between moderates and progressives. Are you up for that task? How do you pull Democrats together towards a positive agenda?
JONES: We don’t have a choice but to pull together for a positive agenda. You have Americans who cannot even fucking live. They can’t survive. Yesterday, I went to the house of a woman who literally got fired from her job. She has cancer. She has $1,000 to her name, and Democrats are sitting here, having a fight on ideologies. If someone like her is not drawing us together, then what the hell are we doing? I don’t want to be fighting with you because we disagree on semantics. And I’m sorry I’m being dramatic, but I literally just saw this yesterday. I got into my car and cried afterwards.
That’s why I love knocking on doors, because it takes you away from the fights on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all this stuff. You talk to real people. That’s what we’re dealing with.
MW: Do you think that centering those sorts of stories and those sorts of life-or-death situations will help your fellow Democrats suppress their egos and change their focus?
JONES: It’s obvious that the policy on the paper isn’t doing it, so let the people do it. Let’s do a “People’s Tour.” Let’s talk to real people who need help. Let’s go talk to Ms. Strawn. Let’s go talk to Ms. Powell. Let’s go talk to Ms. Johnson. Let’s go talk to the mother who’s on the side of the road who can’t feed her family. Maybe that’ll put some perspective on why we’re in office and make us set aside the ideological differences that we have.
MW: What traits or values do you prize and look for in people that you hope to partner with?
JONES: Someone who respects people’s lived experience. Those are people I look for. If I look for people who respect people’s human experience. You can have your belief, but if it hurts people, if it stops people from living freely in this place we call the free country or even the free state of Florida, I can’t rock with you. Those are my values. That’s where I lay my stakes.
Shevrin Jones is a candidate seeking the Democratic nomination for Florida’s 24th Congressional District. For more information, visit shevrinjones.com.
You can follow his campaign on X at @ShevrinJones, on Facebook at facebook.com/shevrin.jones, and on Instagram at @shevrinjones.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
