Democrat politicians love to lecture the rest of us about "serving the people."
But they’re usually too busy serving themselves to notice the hypocrisy.
And one Democrat Congresswoman’s family just got caught running a scheme that will make your blood boil.
Florida Democrat turns tragedy into payday
When a sitting Congressman dies, most people pause to reflect on their service to the country.
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) was probably calculating her next campaign budget.
The same day Rep. Alcee Hastings died on April 6, 2021, Cherfilus-McCormick’s family business started submitting invoices to the Florida Department of Emergency Management.
What happened next reads like a manual for political corruption.
Trinity Health Care Services – where Cherfilus-McCormick served as CEO – sent 17 invoices to the state that spring.
The company walked away with $5.8 million in taxpayer funds that Florida now says Trinity "was not entitled to and had not earned."¹
Here’s where it gets really ugly.
Instead of returning the money when the state realized its mistake, Trinity paid $6.2 million in "profit sharing fees" to Cherfilus-McCormick.
She then turned around and loaned more than $4.2 million to her own political campaigns.
For context, her previous campaigns in 2018 and 2020 raised less than $110,000 combined and got crushed in landslides.
But suddenly, after Trinity got its hands on all that taxpayer cash, money wasn’t a problem anymore.
The whole family was in on the con
This wasn’t some lone-wolf operation.
Trinity Health Care Services is owned by Cherfilus-McCormick’s parents, Gabriel and Marie Smith.
Her brother Edwin Cherfilus served as vice president of operations – and he’s the one who submitted all those false invoices to the state.
The timing tells you everything you need to know about their priorities.
Edwin filed that first bogus invoice on April 6, 2021 – the exact same day Hastings died and created the opening Cherfilus-McCormick needed.
The biggest payday came on June 28, 2021, when the state accidentally cut Trinity a $5 million check for what should have been a $50,000 invoice.
The state calls that a "clerical error," but Trinity sure didn’t rush to return the money.²
Instead, they kept the cash and started funneling it to Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign war chest.
Her husband Corlie McCormick and sister-in-law Chantrell McCormick got in on the action too.
They founded a nonprofit called Progressive People Incorporated in February 2022, which somehow came up with $914,000 in contributions from "undisclosed sources."
That group then paid $20,000 in consulting fees to Edwin Cherfilus and contributed $725,000 to another shady outfit called Truth & Justice Inc.
Look, here’s what should make you absolutely furious
You work your tail off every day, and a chunk of every paycheck goes to taxes.
You probably assume that money is going toward legitimate government services – roads, schools, emergency management.
Instead, it’s getting siphoned off by political families who think taxpayer funds are their personal piggy bank.
This isn’t some minor bookkeeping error we’re talking about.
The House Ethics Committee is now investigating whether Cherfilus-McCormick used stolen taxpayer funds to bankroll her campaigns.
She’s also under investigation for violations involving a state political action committee and an unregistered nonprofit that paid for her campaign ads.
Truth & Justice Inc. spent $150,000 on mailings in 2022 that bore the false disclosure: "Paid for by Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick for Congress."³
But there’s no record that Truth & Justice Inc. ever actually registered with the IRS as a nonprofit, despite claiming that status.
Watchdog attorney Dan Backer put it perfectly: "The scope of this scheme is unprecedented, and this may just be the tip of the iceberg. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is a straight up crook – embezzling taxpayer funds to line her pockets and fund her campaign."⁴
The Democrat playbook in action
Here’s the pattern you need to recognize.
Democrats create these elaborate webs of nonprofits, consulting firms, and PACs that all flow money back to the same corrupt politicians.
They use your tax dollars to fund their campaigns, then lecture you about "democracy" and "public service."
Cherfilus-McCormick went from a fringe candidate who couldn’t raise $110,000 to someone dropping $2.6 million of her own money into a campaign.
That kind of transformation doesn’t happen by accident.
It happens when you figure out how to tap into the taxpayer money spigot and route it through enough shell companies to cover your tracks.
The truly infuriating part is how brazen they are about it.
Edwin Cherfilus filed that first false invoice on the day Hastings died – not a week later, not a month later, but the same day.
They saw opportunity in tragedy and pounced immediately.
Trinity settled with the Florida Department of Emergency Management in May 2025 and agreed to pay back $5.6 million over 15 years.
But that’s essentially a zero-interest loan from taxpayers to fund a Democrat’s political career.
Meanwhile, Cherfilus-McCormick sits in Congress voting on how to spend more of your money.
The House Ethics Committee investigation is ongoing, but don’t hold your breath waiting for real accountability.
These people have turned corruption into a family business, and they’re counting on the system to protect them just like it always has.
¹ Andrew Kerr, "How a Florida Congresswoman and Her Family Allegedly Siphoned Millions From Taxpayers To Fund Her Campaign," Washington Free Beacon, August 25, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.