Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chairman Steve Israel said he wants Alex Sink, the Democrat who lost a key special election House race on Tuesday, to run again against Republican David Jolly in the fall.
Jolly won a district that President Barack Obama carried twice, and Sink, the last Democrat to win statewide in Florida, won in the 2010 primary election before losing that gubernatorial race to Rick Scott. Jolly won largely by opposing amnesty, while Sink and the potential Libertarian spoiler candidate supported amnesty.
Israel said he will insist on a rematch.
“I hope she will… This district will be competitive in November,” he said on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown on Wednesday. “This district in a regular election, not a special election in the midterm, but even a regular midterm election, will be in play. We feel good about our prospects here. And I hope that she does run again, because she did an extraordinary job.”
Israel said that he was “hopeful Alex and I can talk soon” and that “we’re going to try to suggest to Alex to view this not as a curtain closer, but as an overture.”
He said Democrats would “do everything, I mean everything, to support in that endeavor.”
Despite raising more money than Jolly and having a better organization and name identification, Sink, who did not even vote for Obamacare, under-performed as a candidate and was dragged down by Obama’s overall unpopularity.
Sink also made some gaffes that dragged down her candidacy. For example, she said:
Immigration reform is important in our country. We have a lot of employers over on the beaches that rely upon workers and especially in this high-growth environment, where are you going to get people to work to clean our hotel rooms or do our landscaping? We don’t need to put those employers in a position of hiring undocumented and illegal workers.
Those comments suggesting amnesty was needed so those like Sink could enjoy cheap labor was panned and made national headlines. Jolly, the only candidate in the race who was against amnesty, called Sink’s comments “disgusting.”