By any fair measure, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s career prospects were not bright. Six months ago, for example, the Florida Democrat was criminally indicted, with federal prosecutors alleging she stole $5 million in federal disaster relief funds to finance her congressional campaign.
The Justice Department’s probe ran parallel to a congressional ethics investigation, which concluded last month that Cherfilus-McCormick was guilty of more than 20 violations.
Closer to home, the congresswoman was also facing a primary challenge she appeared likely to lose.
It was against this backdrop that some House Republicans announced they would move forward with an effort to expel Cherfilus-McCormick. By all accounts, many House Democrats were prepared to abandon her, too.
Short on friends and options, the Floridian is walking away. MS NOW reported:
Just minutes before a House Ethics hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., announced she will resign from Congress following a two-year investigation from the panel into allegations that she misused federal emergency relief funds.
Her resignation takes effect immediately, giving the tiny House Republican majority a little breathing room. (The chamber now stands at 217 Republicans, 213 Democrats and one independent, which is where it stood before last week’s special election in New Jersey.)
If it seems there has been an unusually high number of resignations over the past year or so, it’s not your imagination. Two sitting Republican senators — Ohio’s JD Vance and Florida’s Marco Rubio — resigned to join the Trump administration, as did sitting Republican House member, Florida’s Mike Waltz. Another Democratic House member also resigned after winning a gubernatorial election: New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill.
But the list keeps going. Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida resigned shortly before the current Congress began, and roughly six months later, Republican Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee also gave up his seat to take an undisclosed job in the private sector. As 2026 got underway, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia joined the club, shortly after she became eligible for a congressional pension.
Last week, the list grew longer when two more incumbents — Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California and Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas — both resigned in disgrace around the same time. Now, Cherfilus-McCormick has followed them out the door eight days later.
For those keeping score, that’s 10 resignations in the current Congress. For those unfamiliar with Capitol Hill, midterm departures are not at all common, and 10 resignations in a year and a half is an unusually large number.
It’s also a reflection of one of the most woeful Congresses in recent memory. When the number of resignations easily surpasses the number of major bills passed, that’s just embarrassing.
But it’s not the only evidence in the broader indictment of the 119th Congress. This is, after all, a Congress that has voluntarily surrendered many of its responsibilities and prerogatives to the White House, while simultaneously proving itself to be an exceedingly dysfunctional and unproductive institution.
About a year ago, former Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, who served more than three decades on Capitol Hill, told The Washington Post, “I learned ninth-grade civics: You’ve got three equal branches of government. But right now, the Congress is not one of them.”
Time will tell what happens in the midterm elections in the fall, but if voters adopt a “throw the bums out” attitude in the fall, no one should be surprised.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
The post Yet another resignation brings fresh shame to one of the worst Congresses ever appeared first on MS NOW.
