A new, bipartisan political action committee focused on strengthening U.S. global aid is throwing its support behind Democrat Elijah Manley’s bid for Florida’s 20th Congressional District.

The Alliance 4 American Leadership, founded by Palm Beach resident Asher Moss after the dissolution of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), endorsed Manley at its launch party in the county over the weekend.

A press note from Manley’s campaign said the PAC now has more than 1,000 volunteers nationwide, including “a significant presence” in South Florida.

“We are the political force that will restore global aid,” Moss, who serves as Executive Director of the PAC, said in a statement. “We believe America should be a humanitarian leader on the world stage. A force for good.”

Manley, accepting the endorsement, agreed foreign aid is important, calling South Florida “the gateway to the rest of the world.”

“It matters for trade, for immigration and for our economy,” he said. “What’s happening in Haiti and Venezuela shows why the United States must lead on the global stage, not just through military force, but by supporting people who are going through the struggle.”

Manley has called for the federal government to restore USAID and increase its spending on programs to 2% of the federal budget.

He is one of two Democrats running to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who was indicted last month on charges that she stole federal COVID funds to finance her 2021 congressional campaign. Cherfilus-McCormick maintains she is innocent and has separately sued Manley and Primary opponent Dale Holness for defamation for including the accusations she faces in campaign communications.

Two Republicans, Sendra Dorce and Joseph Rodenay, are also running this cycle.

CD 20 spans a majority-Black area in and around western and central Broward County, with a small portion of southeast Palm Beach County. It includes all or part of Fort Lauderdale, Lake Park, Lauderdale Lakes, Lauderhill, North Lauderdale, Plantation, Pompano Beach, Riviera Beach, Sunrise and Tamarac.

It’s Florida’s most Democratic-leaning congressional district, with a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of D+22.

The 2026 Primary is Aug. 18, followed by the General Election on Nov. 3.

Katy Sorenson, who served on the Miami-Dade County Commission from 1994 to 2010 and founded the Good Government Initiative at the University of Miami, is backing fellow Democrat Robin Peguero for Congress.

Peguero’s campaign to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar in Florida’s 27th Congressional District announced Sorenson’s support.

The campaign included a statement from Sorenson, who called Peguero “genuine, intelligent, thoughtful and experienced.”

“His can-do spirit radiates positivity and, in these dark times, it gives us hope for the future,” she said.

Peguero, a former prosecutor, has also been endorsed by  Miami-Dade School Board member Joe Geller, Key Biscayne Council member Franklin Caplan, Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro, Cutler Bay Council member B.J. Duncan, former U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala, and former state Reps. Annie Betancourt and J.C. Planas.

Ex-Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey, who withdrew from the race for Florida’s 27th Congressional District and immediately endorsed Peguero in August.

Peguero also carries support from the political arms of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus.

Peguero will face at least two Primary opponents in CD 27: accountant Alexander Fornino and entrepreneur Richard Lamondin.

CD 27 — one of three Florida districts that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has highlighted as “in play” — covers Miami, Coral Gables, Cutler Bay, Key Biscayne, Pinecrest, North Bay Village, South Miami, West Miami and several unincorporated areas.

A Lehigh Acres man convicted of child pornography-related charges has been sentenced to six decades behind bars.

Attorney General James Uthmeier announced this week that his Statewide Prosecution Office has secured a 60-year prison sentence for a 38-year-old man who was convicted of the charges in November.

Phuc Minh Tran was sentenced Monday after his conviction on 40 counts of child pornography possession.

Tran, 38, was found guilty on Nov. 10, and sentencing was issued this week in a case that began more than a year ago. He’ll spend his sentence in a Florida Department of Corrections prison.

“Instead of getting coal in his stocking, this child predator will spend his next 60 Christmases behind bars,” said Uthmeier in a news release. “Justice was delivered with this sentence. I thank Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Agnieszka Thomas and Deputy Statewide Prosecutor Julie Chaikin for putting this predator where he belongs.”

Tran was arrested initially on Aug. 15, 2024, after Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) agents executed a search warrant at his residence. They were tipped off when the FDLE cyber squad picked up clues that he was downloading child pornography on his computer in his Southwest Florida home.

The trial of Tran lasted a week before a jury. The panel found Tran guilty on all 40 counts. All were felony charges. They included multiple counts of second-degree possession, control of, or intentionally viewing child pornography.

Uthmeier’s office has stepped up prosecutions of high-profile suspected child offenders in recent months.

A 35-year-old Oxford man was charged with multiple felonies in connection with a Florida Office of Statewide Prosecution investigation into online sexual abuse materials.

Uthmeier said in a news release earlier this month that investigators focused on Brent Wells and his activity on the online platform Snapchat at his home in the Central Florida town just west of The Villages. Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) agents initiated the investigation on Dec. 3 after getting a cyber tip from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about sexual abuse materials being uploaded on Wells’ Snapchat account.

The FDLE agents and investigators with Uthmeier’s Office of Statewide Prosecution executed a search warrant at Wells’ home in Oxford on Dec. 5. That action also included seizing Wells’ cellphone. Uthmeier said that resulted in finding more digital files depicting sexual acts with children and animals.

Meanwhile, A Hernando County man was indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges related to allegations he committed sexual battery on a child under 12 in November.

Thirty-six-year-old Nathan Douglas Holmberg had indictments on 25 criminal counts returned against him after an extensive investigation by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office and the Office of Statewide Prosecution, Uthmeier announced last month. The indictments include seven charges of capital sexual battery on a child under 12.

Uthmeier said his statewide prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Holmberg.