A journey of a thousand miles, the old adage goes, begins with a single step. For politicians, the journey to Washington begins with a kick-off event.

Elijah Manley held his campaign's official kick-off event on May 10 at Uncommon Path Brewing in Fort Lauderdale. He’s running to unseat fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick in Florida’s District 20 (FL-20). The primary is still 15 months away, and he says that’s the point.

“I strongly believe that the early bird gets the worm,” he said. “I know we’re going up against an incumbent, but I think we’re starting early, and we’re in that frontrunner status, and we want to keep that.”

He’s been publicly toying with the idea of running since January.

“I wanted to bring people together to share my vision for the campaign, talk about why I’m running for congress, and what I plan to do when I get there.”

The district is Florida’s only majority-Black district and covers 2,400 square miles. The Republican Party is not competitive in the district, often fielding a weak candidate or no candidate at all. This means that whoever wins the August 2026 Democratic primary will most likely represent FL-20 in the next congress.

“This regime is out of control. We’re going to take this fight to Donald Trump directly, and to [Vice President] J.D. Vance and Elon Musk.”

Manley says he wants to not only fight the brute force policies of the Trump administration, but also address the needs of his constituents in South Florida.

“This district needs money, a vision, and direction. I mean money for healthcare. [There are] not a lot of good paying jobs. Immigration is a huge issue in our district. People are rightfully scared.”

This isn’t Elijah Manley’s first run for office. In 2022, he ran twice in Democratic primaries: first in a special election for Florida House District 94, where he lost to incumbent Daryl Campbell, and again later that year in the regular primary for the newly redrawn District 99, where he was also defeated by Campbell.

In 2020, he challenged incumbent Bobby DuBose in the Democratic primary for House District 94 but lost. Manley also ran for the Broward County School Board in 2018, losing to incumbent Donna Pilger Korn in a nonpartisan race.

His first campaign was in 2016, when he ran as a Green Party candidate for President of the United States and — at just 17 years old — spoke at the party’s national nominating convention.