Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) has officially announced her Democrat primary campaign in hopes to challenge Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in the 2022 midterm election.
“I know how to get through tough times, and I think we would all agree that we’re in some really tough, unusual times right now,” Demings said Tuesday. “But I’m not afraid of a tough fight.”
“We are dealing with some critical issues. And we need bold, courageous leaders to deal with those issues. And the bottom line is, too many times Marco Rubio did not show up. And when he did, he did not have enough courage to fight for Florida,” she concluded.
Rubio attacked Demings Monday, explaining, “None of them [Demings and other Democrats] will admit to being a socialist. She probably won’t. But she certainly has voted for socialist things.”
“I am not,” Demings told the Orlando Sentinel in relation to Rubio’s comment.
“How can you vote with ‘the Squad’ 94% of the time and argue that you’re not an honorary member of that group? How can you vote with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time and argue that you’re not a far-left, liberal extremist?” Rubio said of Demings. “So she’ll have to answer to that, or whoever their candidate is will have to answer to what their voting record is.”
Demings’ announcement comes as a Democrat report indicated Democrat party panic over far-left initiatives that Republicans exposed as inconsistent with working class and Latino voters’ values in the 2020 election cycle.
The report says, “The socialism attack… hurt campaigns in states and districts with immigrant populations that fled socialist governments, including among Venezuelan, Cuban, Vietnamese, and Filipino voters.”
And the report appears to be true, as South Florida, for instance, was largely flipped Republican in the 2020 House races due to concerns over socialism.
The alarming Democrat report also adds that Democrats were successfully framed as anti-law and order.
Rubio, an experienced campaign heavyweight, said in a tweeted video Wednesday that “while Congresswoman Demings was on TV calling plans to defund the police ‘thoughtful’ and describing a violent riot as ‘a beautiful sight,’ I was writing and passing the VA Accountability Act to help our veterans.”
Rubio added in a statement concerning Demings’ announcement, “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.”
Demings, a former Orlando police chief, said about her party’s radical position on defending the police that she has dedicated her “life to public service. I spent the overwhelming majority of that time, 27 years, as a law enforcement officer. I served as the chief of police.”
Rubio in an interview with Breitbart News June 7 said he perceives a profound shift seen in the 2020 election in the Hispanic community toward Republicans and away from Democrats.
“These are communities made up of people who value common sense wisdom and working class values,” Rubio explained when asked why Hispanic voters in Miami moved significantly towards former President Trump and Republicans’ way in 2020.
“If I were to step in the shoes of someone who maybe voted for Obama in 2012, then voted for Donald Trump in 2020,” Rubio continued, “They would say to you, ‘Look, I came from a socialist country. I fled it. Why the hell would we do that here?’ It makes no sense to them.”
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