Mackenson "Mack" Bernard (born March 4, 1976) is a Haitian-born American politician. He lives in

Boynton Beach, Florida Boynton Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is situated about 57 miles north of Miami. The population was 68,217 at the 2010 census. In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 78,679 according to the University o ...

. 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 of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...

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 (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

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

Florida Senate The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida House of Representatives being the lower house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...

, facing fellow Representative

Jeff Clemens Jeff Clemens (born September 8, 1970, in Detroit, Michigan) is a Democratic politician from Florida. He represented parts of Palm Beach County in the Florida Senate from 2012 until his resignation in 2017, after acknowledging an affair with a l ...

. Clemens won the endorsement of labor unions AFL-CIO and

SEIU Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of members ...

, 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 and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

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.

Personal life and career

Bernard holds a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

with honors from

University of Florida Levin College of Law The University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law (UF Law) is the law school of the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest operating public law school in Florida, and second oldest overall ...

. He earned a teaching fellowship for legal research and writing. Bernard was a member of the University of Florida Trial Team that participated in national competitions. After passing the Florida Bar examinations, Bernard earned an

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

in Taxation from the University of Florida in 2003.

References

1976 births Living people 21st-century American politicians 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 {{Florida-politician-stub