Val Demings Launches Bid for Marco Rubio’s Florida Senate Seat

(Bloomberg) -- Florida Representative Val Demings launched a run for the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, looking to unseat Republican Marco Rubio in the battleground state.

Rubio is seeking a third term next year, after winning reelection in 2016 by seven percentage points in a state that has moved increasingly Republican. Anticipating Demings’s announcement, he told Fox News on Monday that she “voted for socialist things.”

In a preview of their race, Demings slammed Rubio’s votes against Covid assistance packages in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel this week.

“Marco Rubio voted against stimulus checks, he voted against COVID relief for our schools and our small businesses,” Demings said. “And he voted against helping those on the front lines, our first responders or teachers, our health care workers.”

The Senate is currently split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote giving Democrats control, raising the stakes for both parties in close contests next November.

Demings, 64, is a former chief of police and social worker. She was first elected to Congress in 2016 and earned a national profile by serving as one of the House managers who made the case for impeachment of President Donald Trump. She was also considered a possible vice presidential pick for President Joe Biden.

If elected, Demings would be the only Black woman in the U.S. Senate after Harris gave up her seat to serve as vice president.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.