Mackenson "Mack" Bernard (born March 4, 1976) is a Haitian-born American politician who has served as a member of the

Florida Senate The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida House of Representatives being the lower house. Article III, Section 1 of the C ...

since 2024. He lives in

Boynton Beach, Florida Boynton Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is situated about north of Miami. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded a population of 80,380. Boynton Beach is located in the Mi ...

. Bernard moved to Florida in 1986.

Political career

He was first elected to the

Florida House of Representatives The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the C ...

in 2009 as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

in the 27th district. In 2012, Bernard ran for a seat in the 27th district of the

, facing fellow Representative Jeff Clemens. Clemens won the endorsement of labor unions

AFL-CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a national trade union center that is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 61 national and international unions, together r ...

and SEIU, while Bernard received the endorsement of the

Florida Chamber of Commerce The Florida Chamber of Commerce is an organization devoted to the advocacy of private businesses in the state of Florida. This Chamber originated in 1912, and included its first continuing group in 1916, the ''Florida Tick Eradication Committee''.h ...

. In the end, Clemens was able to narrowly defeat Bernard by only seventeen votes in the primary election. Bernard held out hope, however, that Clemens's victory would be overturned and filed a lawsuit to have forty absentee ballots counted. A judge in

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2024, the est ...

ruled against Bernard but allowed nine provisional ballots to be counted, which would not have been enough to allow Bernard to emerge victorious. In the general election, Clemens remained on the ballot as the Democratic nominee, and was elected unopposed. In June 2024, Bernard was elected to the

as he was the sole candidate to file in a special election to succeed Bobby Powell. The move was done as part of a "seat swap" while Powell runs for Bernard's seat on the Palm Beach County Commission.

References

1976 births Living people American politicians of Haitian descent Businesspeople from Florida Democratic Party members of the Florida House of Representatives Former Presbyterians Haitian emigrants to the United States People from Port-au-Prince University of Florida alumni 21st-century members of the Florida Legislature {{Florida-FLRepresentative-Democratic-stub