Florida Democratic Rep. Val Demings launched a bid for Senate on Wednesday, aiming to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio in 2022.
Demings, formerly chief of Orlando police, was on President Joe Biden’s list of potential running mates, helping to increase her national profile.
“When you grow up in the South poor, black, and female, you have to have faith, and progress, and opportunity,” Demings, 64, says in her announcement video.
She documents her journey from being the daughter of a janitor and a maid in Jacksonville to joining the police force in Orlando and working her way up while being a “working mom.”
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Talking over a compilation of photos of Rubio with former President Donald Trump and other politicians such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Demings then takes aim at the incumbent, accusing Rubio of being “too tired to fight the efforts to suppress the people’s vote.”
That leads to Demings’s campaign tag line: “Never tire.”
Rubio’s Senate campaign promptly hit back at Demings, flaunting his efforts to double the child tax credit and advance Florida-centric measures.
“Marco’s contrast with Val Demings could not be greater because she has no record of results for Florida. Since coming to Washington, she has voted with Nancy Pelosi nearly 100% of the time,” Rubio campaign manager Mark Morgan said in a statement. “She supported efforts to defund the police, opposed tax relief for working families, and led the effort to put Washington in charge of Florida’s elections. Florida deserves a Senator with a proven track record of fighting, and winning, for Florida families.”
On Fox News Monday, ahead of Demings’s expected announcement, Rubio said that while Demings will likely not admit to “being a socialist,” she “certainly has voted for socialist things.”
In response, Demings told the Orlando Sentinel, “I am not” a socialist. “Desperate people will do and say desperate things. And I don’t blame Rubio and the GOP for being very concerned about me running for the United States Senate against Marco Rubio.”
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Demings is one of several Democrats who have announced 2022 Senate campaigns, including fellow Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson.
Historically a swing state, Florida has seen a wave of Republican victories in recent campaign cycles. The Cook Political Report rates the race as likely Republican.
