Sen. Rick Scott’s Democrat Challenger Refuses to Disavow Noncitizen Voting

Florida Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is campaigning on protecting democracy, but she appears more passionate about election integrity overseas than in her own nation.

The one-term congresswoman born in Ecuador is fighting to take out Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) after being defeated in 2020 by Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL). The incumbent and challenger have sparred on border security and election integrity.

Breitbart News reached out to Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign to ask if she believes illegals should vote in American elections and if she would support the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act – legislation to bar noncitizens from voting in federal election by expanding proof-of-citizenship requirements and imposing voter roll purge requirements on states.

The bipartisan bill, which passed the House in July with five Democrats but has not seen action in the Senate, is gaining steam on the campaign trail and in Washington with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) planning to attach the SAVE Act to a continuing resolution to keep the government funded beyond the current September 30 deadline.

Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign did not respond to Breitbart’s inquiry asking her stance on the issue.

Several days after Breitbart’s unanswered inquiry to Mucarsel-Powell, Newsweek published an exclusive interview with her “on Venezuela, Immigration and Rick Scott.”

In the interview, Mucarsel-Powell extensively discussed the significance of election integrity in Venezuela, accusing – accurately if not also ironically – dictator Nicolas Maduro of “trying to steal an election” and “targeting the opposition.” She also used the interview to bash Scott over his support of Donald Trump.

Mucarsel-Powell appeared to use the friendly interview to proactively address her view on the SAVE Act, but she ignored the substance of the issue. Dismissing the bill as political theater, Mucarsel-Powell once again refused the opportunity to disavow noncitizen voting in American elections.

“We’ve seen an incitement of violence against immigrants because of these talking points that Rick Scott continues to use, and a lot of them are completely false,” she told Newsweek. “I can tell you that the latest thing, and I’m going to tell you this before you even ask me the question, is that they’re saying that we should pass a law to make it illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote. Well, we already have laws on the books that say that it’s illegal if you are not a U.S. citizen, you cannot vote.”

She continued, “let’s set the record straight right now. They’re again using a false talking point to divide, to make it seem as [if] this country does not have laws. Rick Scott maybe should look at the book that we have of laws in our country.

But Republicans argue laws preventing noncitizen voting are ineffective without guardrails put in place.

“Noncitizens register to vote and in many cases have voted — because existing federal law makes it far too easy to do so,” Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), who introduced the bill in the Senate, posted on X Tuesday. “That is why we need the SAVE Act.”

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) wrote an op-ed for Breitbart Wednesday deconstructing the Democrat argument that noncitizen voting is already against the law.

“They fail to mention that the Supreme Court’s interpretation of current federal law literally prevents states from verifying the citizenship status of individuals registering to vote in federal elections,” Roy said. “They further fail to tell you that multiple Democrat-run jurisdictions are actively working to register non-citizens to vote. The SAVE Act fixes each of these problems.”

Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign website’s issues page includes a section titled “Security & Democracy First.” The page mentions “addressing the crisis at our border” in passing as well as the importance of “defending democracy abroad” – with no explicit mention of defending American democracy.

“We must maintain American strength and competitiveness,” the page reads. “Debbie knows that starts with addressing the crisis at our borders and defending democracy abroad.”

Scott has championed the SAVE Act in the Senate and been outspoken on the need to prioritize election integrity in our own elections as a key component of reducing the incentive for illegal immigration.

“Speaker Johnson is doing the right thing by attaching the SAVE Act to the spending bill,” Scott posted on X. “Anyone who feels noncitizens should be voting in our elections needs to answer to the American people.”

The House returns from its summer recess Monday and is expected to move quickly to pass the stop-gap spending bill coupled with the SAVE Act. That course would give Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) a choice between ignoring the House bill or cajoling enough Republicans to cross the aisle and vote for a clean CR without election integrity measures.

The deadline to fund the government is September 30.

“We want to fund government and we [are] out to do it through next year so the next president has the opportunity to make sure he fixes the budget, and we ought to make sure noncitizens don’t vote,” Scott said on Fox News. “If Chuck Schumer doesn’t believe in those things, let him make that decision.”

Regardless how that battle plays out, the issue of border security will not go away.

To demonstrate her supposed bona fides on border security, Mucarsel-Powell touts the 2024 pro-migration bill championed by Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

That failed pro-migration bill, which Sen. Roger Marshall recently told Breitbart was “all smoke and mirrors,” was negotiated behind closed doors by a phalanx of Democrat Senators and Republican Sen. James Lankford (R-OK). Support for the bill collapsed within hours after its details leaked.

Despite characterization of the bill by its negotiators, as Breitbart has reported, the doomed legislation increased legal immigration levels while expediting work permits for migrants released into the United States, and most infamously, permitting tens of thousands of migrants to cross the border every week before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could use any type of border controls.

Vice President Kamala Harris has said if elected she will not only support that bill but ensure it is signed into law.

Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.