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Representative Val Demings is seen as the top Democratic candidate in the state. | Scott Applewhite / AP Photo
by Matt Dixon
Updated on 09/06/2021 09:50 AM EDT
2021-06-09 T09: 50-0400
Orlando Democratic Representative Val Demings on Wednesday launched her bid to beat Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a race Democrats hope to use to regain prominence in a Republican-controlled state.
Demings, a 64-year-old black former Orlando police chief, is seen as the top Democratic candidate statewide. She had looked forward to running for governor before Politico reported in May that it was shifting its focus to challenging Rubio. The move sent ripple effects across the field, as Demings was seen as the favorite in the Democratic primary.
“I am running for the US Senate because I will never tire of standing up for the truth. Never tire of serving Florida,” Demings said on Twitter.
The Orlando Sentinel was the first to report its announcement.
Rubio and Florida Senator Rick Scott, who chairs the Republican Senate National Committee, will frame Demings as a left-wing socialist, messages they have used successfully during the past two Florida elections. Democrats hope her nearly three-decade law enforcement career will help stem those attacks, which often attempt to link Democratic candidates to the “Defund the Police” movement.
“Congresswoman Val Demings is a member of the House of Representatives who does nothing without one significant legislative achievement during her time in Congress,” Rubio said in a video on Wednesday.
Scott and the National Security Council welcomed Demings’ announcement by calling her a “Pelosi puppet” who, among other things, “supported stopping police funding.”
Senator Rubio has led the way in the Senate to fight for the priorities that every Florida family wants; “More jobs, safe communities, a great education for their children, and making sure that freedom and democracy are preserved at home and around the world,” Scott said. “This is what Floridaans need, not just another D.C. Democrat puppet who votes with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer’s far-left agenda at every turn.”
The Senate is currently split evenly between 50 and 50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting a tie in the vote, so dropping Rubio is key to the Democrats’ national strategy for staying in power.
Demings, who is in her third term in Congress, gained national notoriety for serving as director during former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, and at one point on the shortlist to be Vice President Joe Biden.
Florida Democrats lost up and down the ballot in 2020 by Republicans, including Trump, who won Florida by more than three points. The party has little control over the Republican-led state legislature, and the only elected official at the state level for Democrats, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, is leaving that position to run for governor.
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