MIAMI – Florida’s Democratic Party is expressing hope that the enthusiasm for the Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz presidential ticket will boost U.S. Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s efforts to un-seat Republican incumbent Rick Scott.
Fresh off her primary election win, Mucarsel-Powell spoke at a rally Wednesday for contracted airline workers who are part of the labor union that endorsed her as her campaign centers on what she calls Florida’s “affordability crisis.”
“It is extremely difficult to make it here -- that is the top issue living in the state of Florida,” she said.
This comes as Scott, in a statement on Wednesday, peddled one of his nicknames for her: “Debbie Downer.”
Barry University’s Sean Foreman said while Scott might be unpopular, winning statewide races by narrow margins, he has the math on his side: Republicans have more registered voters and a bigger war chest.
“That’s just typical of the Republican playbook ever since Donald Trump has become the standard bearer of the party,” said Foreman. “Rick Scott is basically a 49% popularity guy.”
Local 10 News’ Christina Vazquez asked Mucarsel-Powell on Wednesday how she thinks she can flip the seat blue based on the numbers.
“Well, what we saw last night is that many, not just my race, many of these races were run by the grassroots movement we have been building,” Mucarsel-Powell said.
On a press call, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried spoke of a surge in new volunteers.
“While we are not going to have the millions of corporate dollars that are going to flow into the state of Florida, we are going to have the people,” she said. “Thirty-thousand new volunteers in the state of Florida since Kamala Harris became our presumptive nominee. That is an army.”
Added Foreman: “I think we need to see if Democrats put their money where their mouth is.”
Foreman says the national Democratic establishment may choose to divert critical resources to other contests they have their eyes set on winning the presidency, like Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and also states where they think they can hold or pick up a Senate seat.
“National Democrats have played a game with Florida Democrats,” said Foreman. “They have said they are interested, they have talked about how Florida is important, they have come here to raise money, but they haven’t really put the resources into setting up the ground game or even making the case to help Debbie Mucarsel-Powell win that race.”
Mucarsel-Powell has said she wants to protect Social Security and expand Medicare access.
In his statement Wednesday, Scott described her position of providing seniors with expanded healthcare coverage as “radical,” describing it as “socialist Medicare for all.”
It isn’t the first time he has tried to label her a socialist, which the former Democratic representative vying to make him a one-term senator finds deeply offensive.
“It is a lie and it is insulting, not only to me and my mother, who left a military dictatorship, but to the Latinos who are living under socialist dictatorships right now,” she said. “I have family living in Venezuela. How dare he insult the pain and suffering that they have been going through. He has no idea. He is using it to divide, to confuse people, and also because he is so arrogant.”