Florida's Meek to Announce Senate Run

January 12, 2009 4:31 PM

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Florida Democrat who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, plans to announce on Tuesday that he will be a Senate candidate in 2010.

Meek is the first major candidate to get into the race to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Mel Martinez. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, announced last week that he will not be a candidate after weighing a possible Senate bid.

Meek, 42, was an early backer of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, endorsing the former first lady in 2007.  He currently sits on the powerful Ways & Means Committee and is a member of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.

Meek was elected to Congress in 2002 to fill the House seat which had been held by his mother, Carrie Meek, for 10 years.

Prior to his election to Congress, Meek served eight years in the Florida House and Senate and was a captain in the Florida Highway Patrol.

He gained notoriety as a state legislator in 2000 when he staged a 25-hour sit-in to protest Bush's "One Florida" executive orders ending the use of affirmative action in state contracting and university admissions.

ABC News' Tahman Bradley contributed to this report.