Florida Democrats face the tough task of trying to unseat two of the nation’s best-known politicians — Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Ron DeSantis — during a midterm election cycle that presents considerable headwinds because of President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings.
But on Sunday night before nearly 700 Democratic faithful in Sarasota, the party’s leading statewide U.S. Senate and gubernatorial candidates offered a positive outlook and exuded confidence that they could be victorious in November.
Senate candidate and U.S. Rep. Val Demings, a former Orlando police chief, highlighted her modest background, noting her mother cleaned houses, her father was a janitor and she was the first in her family to go to college.
She never mentioned Rubio by name, instead focusing on her support of affordable health care, a strong public education system, environmental protection and safeguarding voting rights. Demings trails the incumbent Rubio in the polls.
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Those running in the Democratic primary for governor — U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and state Sen. Annette Taddeo — did not attack each other but collectively criticized DeSantis, even as their party primary has grown more combative.
The latest statewide polls show Crist leading comfortably over Fried and Taddeo.
Just as former President Donald Trump has been the biggest motivator for Democrats in the past two presidential races, invoking DeSantis is a surefire way to get Florida Democrats fired up and the Democratic candidates kept him in their sights.
“In this race the only thing that really matters is that we defeat Ron DeSantis,” Crist said to applause.
Fried accused DeSantis of implementing an “autocracy” and spending “the last three and a half years dividing us, teaching hate and fear.”
Demings, who risks being weighed down by an unpopular president as she tries to unseat Rubio, said in an interview before her speech that she’d be glad to campaign with Biden, even as she was vague about whether she backs his administration’s latest move on the hot-button issue of immigration.
The Biden administration announced Friday it was ending as of May a Trump-era policy that made it harder for migrants to seek U.S. asylum in the name of fighting the coronavirus.
The policy, called Title 42, allows U.S. border agents to expel asylum seekers to Mexico to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and was issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Critics contend lifting Title 42 will lead to a flood new migrants.
“I know that there have been people calling for Title 42 to be removed long before now, or to be relaxed in some way, right? I think that we need to make sure, number one… as we follow the law, we need to make sure that our borders are secure,” Demings said.
Demings did highlight the concerns people have with Title 42, noting that people believe “it has prevented us from obeying the law by allowing those asylum seekers to be able to have their cases basically reviewed in the United States.
Preventing them from doing that is also against the law.” “We have some challenges and we have to deal with them but we don’t disobey the law in order to do that,” Demings concluded.
Immigration is one of several problems facing the Biden administration, namely skyrocketing gas prices and inflation, which have caused the president’s approval ratings to sag since taking office last year.
Multiple polls show the president’s job approval ratings at about 40%.
No matter to Demings. In the interview before her speech to the Sarasota County Democratic Party’s Kennedy-King dinner, she said “there is not one day that I have thought about whether the president’s approval ratings made my race easier or harder.”
“I know this is my…
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