Democrat LaShonda "LJ" Holloway launched her bid to unseat Congressman Al Lawson (D-FL 5) Tuesday. She noted she's a candidate from Jacksonville running against the Tallahassee-based incumbent.
Holloway said she’s frustrated with a Congress that "offers thoughts and prayers" rather than “common-sense solutions" to gun violence, like what she supports.
The Duval County resident and repeat candidate also plans to make the environment a focus of her campaign.
“Not only for our health, but for our future, we have to combat climate change,” Holloway said at her campaign kickoff Tuesday morning on Jacksonville's Eastside.
Holloway is also the host of The LJ Holloway Show, which, according to its Facebook page, airs on 904Live.com. "I am running because I am tired of underachieving politicans. We need politicans who will represent the interestes of the people - not special interests, not lobbyists," she said.
She is the third challenger to enter the District 5 race behind Democrat Albert Chester and Republican Matthew Lusk.
This isn’t the first time Holloway has run for Congress.
In 2016, she came in third in a three-way race between then-incumbent Congresswoman Corrine Brown and Lawson amid Brown's facing fraud charges. Brown was later convicted and sentenced to five years in federal prison for fraud.
Lawson also fended off a challenge by former Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown to win reelection in 2018.
District 5 was redrawn in recent years to stretch from Jacksonville to just west of Tallahassee. It previously was held up as an example of one of the most gerrymandered districts in the nation, as it snaked in a thin line from Jacksonville down to Central Florida.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter at @cydwjctnews.
