Congressional contest draws down to the wire

Ten Democrats are in a heated Democratic primary race to succeed U.S. Rep. Val Demings, D-Orlando, who is running for U.S. Senate, with former Congressman Alan Grayson and state Senator Randolph Bracy leading the field.

They are joined by civil rights attorney Natalie Jackson, pastor Terence Gray, and businessman Jeffrey Boone, chef Jack Achenbach, businessman Khalid Muneer, teacher Teresa Tachon and former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown —who all trail in funding and voter support, according to FEC reports and recent polling, except for a young 'Defund the Police' candidate whose $3 million campaign is being financed by a mysterious cryptocurrency billionaire.

"Grayson was once known as one of the liberal lions of Congress, formerly a popular guest on national, liberal cable talk shows," said Scott Powers, a veteran journalist who writes for Florida Politics. "Now, he has reinvented himself as the wise old hand, whose successful congressional record — which ended in 2017 — of passing more legislation than anyone during his tenure shows he knows how to get things done in Washington better than his rivals."

Powers also said that Grayson has "turned his focus largely to kitchen table issues — easing high taxes, high tolls, and high rents — plus his agenda from 10 years ago."

Bracy’s campaign was described as "lackadaisical and unfocused" by Powers, who also said: "He’s run on his legislative record, which, as a Democrat in a Republican-dominated Legislature, was less than ambitious."

Grayson did pass more laws than any other Member of Congress but now says he wants to ensure that tenants get equal treatment by making rent tax-deductible. The three-term congressman's slogan is "Lower Tolls, Lower Taxes, Lower Rent" and he has described a clear plan for fighting inflation.

Bracy was caught in several lies, announcing in one mailer that he is "the only candidate with legislative experience," even though Grayson earned distinction as the most effective member of Congress when he represented the district for three terms in the US House of Representatives.

Bracy has served in the Florida state Senate since 2012, and claims that he has successfully passed significant reform measures in a Republican-controlled Legislature, but every piece of legislation he introduced over the last two years has died in committee.

As a member of the 2008 Obama wave, Grayson earned a national reputation while he was a freshman Democrat that made him a top target for Tea party Republicans, but he overcame GOP cheating in the redistricting process to secure a return to Washington, DC, where he was called the most effective member of the House for getting bills passed.

Time magazine, Slate and Business Insider each recognized Grayson as one of the most 'productive' or 'effective' members of the House of Representatives during his second term in Washington.

Grayson also delivered for Orlando by protecting seven schools from closing, securing nearly $1 billion in highway improvements, funding the SunRail extension from Downtown to Poinciana, increasing competitive grants $100 million to create jobs, bringing a Veterans Hospital to the city, and cutting foreclosures in half. The Grayson Mediation Program was so successful, it was adopted statewide.

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Bracy requested a special session of the Florida legislature to address police brutality and bias against African-Americans, but his demand was turned down.

Grayson and the state Senator have each sponsored legislation to ban assault weapons, but Bracy voted against the measure that ultimately became law in Florida in the aftermath of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Grayson served in Congress in 2009 and 2010 and from 2013 through 2016. He unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2016 before trying to win back a congressional seat in 2018.

Maxwell Frost raised more money than all his opponents combined but beyond his fundraising, the Generation Z candidate has failed to show any other skills.

As of June 30, Frost received $75,181.25 from PACs, $926,460.71 in unitemized individual contributions, $1,013,687.66 in itemized contributions from individuals who live outside the district, but only $22,431.38 from people who live in the district where he is a candidate.

A PAC funded by Samuel Bankman-Fried, a 30-year-old billionaire who founded the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. has pledged to spend another $1 million to promote Frostpledged to spend another $1 million to promote Frost while the a New York based PAC is spending $150,000 to promote Frost and attack Grayson and Bracy.

That adds up to about $3.2 million but fewer than two dozen of his listed donors can actually vote for Frost, who opened the door to negative campaign tactics with a mailing that recycled a bunch of lies about Grayson that were originally concocted by a GOP super PAC, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), and No Labels, a neoliberal dark money group known for bending Democrats to do the bidding of Republican billionaires.

Grayson called the mailer “a desperate move by a chronic liar” while Bracy joined in criticized Frost, saying, “he’s obviously down, so he’s attacking me.”

So despicable were those lies that Grayson is still pursuing litigation against No Labels, and its founder Nancy Jacobson and her husband, pollster Mark Penn.

Grayson’s lawsuit alleged that the “vitriolic, hateful, false and maliciously defamatory statements published about him by the defendants (acting through Progress Tomorrow) leading up to Grayson’s 2018 congressional campaign crossed the line of acceptable discourse, even by the standards of modern political debate, and exceeded all bounds of decency, all with the intent to ruin Grayson.”

“The defendants published repeated statements which they knew were false, or were published with reckless regard to truthfulness, and they damaged Grayson personally, professionally and ultimately politically,” the lawsuit said. “The defendants thereby enriched themselves, under their ‘inside the Beltway’ business model of promoting their ugly brand of malicious defamation to rich donors.”

The venom directed at Grayson by such dark money groups probably reflects what will rise during the US Senate campaign, which makes the former Congressman a good ally for Demings.

When Tea Party Express announced its endorsement of Senator Marco Rubio for re-election to the United States Senate from the State of Florida, Taylor Budowich, the group's executive director lavished criticism on Demings and Grayson.

“Val Demings parades around as a moderate, but is simply a puppet for Nancy Pelosi, voting with her 100 percent of the time," said Budowich, who has previously condemned Grayson for making a comparison between the Tea Party and KKK long before the January 6, 2021 riots vindicated his position.

In 2019, Grayson released a book called High Crimes: The Impeachment of Donald Trump and he has forcefully stood up against conservative Republicans as well as corporate-controlled Democrats and the Wall Street establishment.

Orlando resident Katherine Margate says she admires Grayson's courage and said she thinks he would be the best running mate for Demings and the Democrat who wins the nomination to take on Governor Ron DeSantis in November.

"Alan Grayson is an accomplished fighter, who has a record of success and the dynamic appeal that will help increase turnout," said Margate. "While I am still going back and forth between Nikki Fried and Charlie Crist in the Democratic primary for governor, I am set on Val Demings and Alan Grayson."

While many Democratic candidates now support “Medicare for all,” comprehensive reproductive rights, a $15 minimum wage, LGBTQ rights, free community college tuition, gun control, and a path to citizenship for Dreamers, these are issues that Grayson championed since his first House election 2008, often with Senator Bernie Sanders as a Senate co-sponsor.

Demings, an Orlando Democrat and former Orlando police chief, is the only woman in the Democratic primary race but three other Democrats are listed on the ballot in the Aug. 23 primary election. They are William J. Sanchez, Brian Rush and Ricardo De La Fuente.

Demings is reportedly irritated by the youthful candidate's 'Defund the Police' rhetoric, which strategists say can have a toxic impact on the Democratic standard-bearer in the state.

“It’s easy for Democrats like Val Demings to call defunding the police ‘very thoughtful’ and violent riots ‘a beautiful sight’ when she has her own private security to back her up,” said Julia Friedland, spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.

Twenty-eight people were arrested after protesters threw rocks, bottles, and at least one brick at officers but despite the fact that Frost was not one of them, the candidate has fraudulently claimed he was "beat by police" in order to bolster his credibility among the twenty-somethings across the country that are sending him thousands of donations.

The inexperienced youth is considered a potential time bomb by Demings staffers, who would be concerned if he were to outpoll the nine mature adults in the contest but they say that is very unlikely.

Carlton Abernathy, a Bracy supporter, said he distrusts the upstart candidate who is dominating the spending in the campaign.

"He came out of nowhere," said Abernathy. "Then, he attacked state Senator Bracy and other familiar Democratic leaders. That may fool some people but it gives me pause about voting for young and dishonest Maxwell Frost for Congress."

Youth is not always a disincentive for supporting a candidate but science suggests it should be.

"The preponderance of young men engaging in these deadly, evil, and stupid acts of violence may be a result of brains that have yet to fully developed," said Howard Forman, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

To be sure, Frost seems to have more going for him than Capitol barricade crasher 29-year old Richard A. York III; or Salman Rushdie's 24-year old assailant, Hadi Matar; or 25-year-old Jamel Jones, who is charged with a shooting in Pittsburgh; or 21-year old Fourth of July parade shooter Robert Crimo, who confessed to the Highland Park massacre that left seven people dead and more than 30 injured but a member of Congress ought to be a little more seasoned and a lot better educated.

Neuroscientists are confirming what car rental agencies already figured out — the brain doesn't fully mature until age 25. Up until this age, the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain that helps curb impulsive behavior — is not yet fully developed. Some scientists say this could illuminate a potential factor behind a recent spate of acts of mass violence, almost all of which have been perpetrated by men between the ages of 20 and 30.

There is also a vast deficit in seasoning. Frost, may have a high school diploma but he's running against Harvard graduates and lawyers that have been fighting for civil rights and justice for decades. He may possess the instinct to know mass shootings are bad but Frost did not learn about the principles of liberty, economics, justice or the origins of democracy by playing drums in a high school jazz band.

Congress makes complex decisions about national security, the prosperity of our nation, international relations, and the allocations of investments in science, agriculture, education, and more. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earned national recognition when she defeated a powerful incumbent, in what was the biggest upset victory in the 2018 midterm election primaries.

Taking office at age 29, Ocasio-Cortez was the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress, but she double-majored in international relations and economics at Boston University, graduating cum laude. Her microbiology project not only won second place at a global science competition in high school, but it was so impressive that MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory named a small asteroid after her, 23238 Ocasio-Cortez.

There are no celestial bodies named after Frost but he has amassed astronomical amounts of money, which is the stuff that young idealistic progressive activists believe pollutes America's political system.

"Frost is entirely unqualified for the job, but he has banked a $3 million campaign fund and won the heart of at least one billionaire," said Archie Sherrick, who says he initially supported Jeff Boone but is thinking of voting for Grayson instead, as his first choice appears to be out of the running.

"Without his massive financial advantage, Frost would be incidental to the contest but he has opened the door to negative campaigning and flooded airwaves, mailboxes, and other advertising media with his outside money," said Sherrick. "Along with the endorsement of our local newspaper, which was purchased last year by a notorious hedge fund, his whole persona screams that he cannot be trusted."

Sherrick said that he suspected the young first-time candidate is behind a number of text messages that surfaced in recent days and garnered some media attention, some asking if Frost's sexual indiscretions might influence voters.

"He is a young man who wants attention and thinks he can get away with blaming serious statesmen like Congressman Grayson and Senator Bracy for his buffoonery," said Sherrick. "I don't trust him."