Ousted from DNC, Wasserman Schultz fighting to stay in House

(AP) — U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz easily won her South Florida district six times, but a Democratic primary challenge from a Bernie Sanders-backed law professor is making her seventh bid less than a sure bet — and her recent resignation as Democratic National Committee chairwoman hasn't helped.

Wasserman Schultz, 49, re-emerged in public Thursday, six days after the Democratic National Convention and her forced resignation as national party chair following a leaked email scandal.

In general elections, she received at least 60 percent of the vote in a 2-to-1 Democratic district that stretches from the ocean to the Everglades and includes high-rise beachfront hotels and condos, golf resorts and luxury malls and a mix of poor, middle-class, retiree and well-heeled communities.

Wasserman Schultz has been perceived as such a powerhouse — and the district so uncompetitive — that former U.S. Rep. Allen West, a tough-talking favorite of conservative Republicans and one of her fiercest critics, ran legally in a neighboring district even though he lived in hers to avoid near-certain defeat.

The email leaks that cost Wasserman Schultz her DNC post are motivating Canova's backers, who say they prove what they long believed: that Wasserman Schultz threw aside fairness and neutrality to weaken Sanders' chances of defeating Clinton in the Democratic primaries.

Wasserman Schultz denies showing favoritism in the presidential race, saying she strictly followed party rules.