FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and his Democratic challenger, Rep. Val Demings, are campaigning for Senate with less than a week before the midterm election.
Rubio stopped in Fort Lauderdale Wednesday to meet with a coalition of police unions, which have endorsed him, in spite of the fact that his challenger is a former police officer and chief.
“I support police officers and she turned her back on them when she had a chance to defend them in 2020, when (protesters) were burning down cities and talking about defunding police officers,” Rubio said.
Mick McHale, the president of the National Association of Police Organizations, touted his working relationship with Rubio.
“I’ve had the pleasure as a PBA elected official to work with Senator Rubio back in his days in the (Florida) House of Representatives,” McHale said. “He has never wavered from his support in making public safety his priority.”
Rubio also touched on inflation, the economy, crime and immigration.
“It’s a mass migration, chaos, disorder which no country in the world in the county can tolerate,” Rubio said. “You can’t do it. You can’t have 5 to 6,000 people a day showing up.”
In the meantime, Demings campaigned with President Joe Biden during his stop in South Florida Tuesday.
“With your help, I will be elected as the next United States Senator to represent Florida,” she said at a rally.
A recent poll shows Rubio with a strong lead of roughly eight percentage points.
“I don’t pay attention to the polls,” Rubio said. “The only poll I care about is the one they count in November.”
Democrats are hoping Biden’s appearance in the Sunshine State will help boost turnout.
Demings has a packed schedule ahead of next Tuesday. She’s set to campaign in Tampa and Jacksonville and is scheduled to return to South Florida Monday night, holding a rally in Tamarac.