PINECREST, Fla. – The only Latino running for a U.S. Senate seat in November is trying to outdo the Republican incumbent in an increasingly red state by highlighting his moderate stance on a range of issues, including Latin American policy.
Former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat, says families across the state have — and she knows from personal experience. His mother lives with him and his 24-year-old daughter was also under the same roof until recently. All because housing has become so expensive in Florida, Mucarsel-Powell said.
He said those day-to-day struggles will lead him to challenge Sen. Rick Scott, a well-funded Republican seeking a second term in a state that has turned increasingly red in recent years.
Scott led Mucarsel-Powell by four points in a recent poll by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab, which is within the poll’s margin of error and in line with other polls showing Scott with a single-digit lead. Still, it’s an uphill battle in a state where Republicans have dominated recent elections.
Early voting is underway for Florida’s Aug. 20 primary, with Mucarsel-Powell and Scott facing off in a nominal race for their party’s nomination.
During a coffee shop visit in June in this upscale Miami-Dade suburb, Mucarsel-Powell described how she would help lower the cost of living for Floridians, including efforts to lower prescription prices and property insurance premiums and promote the expansion of solar panels.
“Retirees have to go back to work because they can’t afford to pay for their property insurance, students can’t afford to get the education they want because of the cost of living,” he said.
Mucarsel-Powell, 53, who made history as the first Ecuadorian-American and the first South American-born member of Congress, emigrated from Ecuador when she was 14 years old. Her mother was cleaning houses when she arrived, and Mucarsel-Powell said she helped her. His father died in gun violence in Ecuador.
After one term, Mucarsel-Powell lost her seat to Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez in 2020. She joined Giffords, a gun violence prevention organization founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.
There is currently only one Latina elected to the US Senate: Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada.
Mucarsel-Powell faces tough competition as the underdog, said Eduardo Gamarra, a political science professor and author of the poll at Florida International University.
Republicans have a majority of registered voters in Florida, Gamarra said. “So on that basis alone, you could say the Mucarsel-Powell fight is uphill,” he said.
Scott, 71, has made a name for himself in the state, having served eight years as governor. He won both of his gubernatorial races with less than 50 percent of the vote, then narrowly missed a majority when he won the Senate election in 2018 by about 10,000 votes. Scott is the wealthiest sitting senator and has the ability to self-finance his campaign. He has loaned or given nearly $14 million of his own money to his campaign through July. In 2018, Scott spent about $63 million to defeat Democratic incumbent Rep. Bill Nelson.
Mucarsel-Powell claims to be a bipartisan party at her campaign events and Zoom calls, and GovTrack lists her voting record as “purple,” meaning she has voted with Democrats and Republicans.
Scott’s campaign disputed that assessment.
“Debbie Mucarsel-Powell went to Congress for one term, voted 100% of the time with Nancy Pelosi, 94% with Ilhan Omar, and 93% with the AOC before voters fired her,” Scott campaign spokesman Will Hampson wrote in an email. opinion. “He’s been silent on our open border, the big spending he voted for has caused inflation to crush Floridians. … He’s a socialist with no bottom line, so he has to lie about Rick Scott. It’s sad, and Florida voters will reject him in November , if he wins the primary.”
For years, as part of their appeal to the large number of Latin American voters in the state, Republicans have accused state and national Democrats of being “socialists” reminiscent of left-wing authoritarian leaders in countries like Venezuela and Cuba.
Mucarsel-Powell has resisted that label and distanced herself from some of President Joe Biden’s Latin American policies. He said the administration should not have removed Cuba from the list of countries not cooperating fully against terrorism.
Florida, once a battleground state, has moved more to the right in recent years. According to two recent polls, former President Donald Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris by an average of 8.5 points in Florida, which Trump won in 2020 by about 3 percent.
The November election will be a test of the status of Florida Democrats after devastating losses in the midterm elections. Gov. Ron DeSantis won re-election in a landslide, becoming the first Republican governor to win heavily Hispanic Miami-Dade County since 2002. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio also won re-election in 2022 by more than 16 percent.
Emphasis on abortion rights
Mucarsel-Powell makes abortion rights a key issue in the race.
“It’s a health care issue. It’s a civil rights issue,” she said, adding that it’s a decision that should be made between the woman and her doctor.
Florida recently enacted a six-week abortion ban. As nearby states have passed similar bans, the closest state to offer abortion beyond six weeks is North Carolina, where it is legal up to 12 weeks. Virginia is the next closest state, where abortions are legal up to 26 weeks. Scott has said he supports replacing the six-week ban with a 15-week ban.
Floridians can vote in November on whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution: The ballot measure seeks to change restrictions on abortion before fetal viability, which is considered to occur around the 24th week of pregnancy. It would include exemptions after that point for “the patient’s medical condition as determined by the patient’s health care provider.”
In Florida, the voter turnout must reach 60 percent to pass, meaning it needs support from both Democrats and Republicans. Some abortion rights advocates have rejected the politicization of the issue.
“It’s not political. It shouldn’t be political. But there is one party that has politicized it by taking away that right and freedom,” Mucarsel-Powell said, adding that the six-week ban “happened in the state legislature by a supermajority, which is a Republican supermajority . It’s a fact. It’s not politicking.”
He also mentioned that Scott voted against a bill that would prohibit states from placing restrictions on IVF treatment and affordability, while running an ad supporting IVF. Scott responded to criticism at the time by saying he supports a bill to strengthen state IVF coverage, not the federal one.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are vocal supporters of abortion rights and access to IVF and fertility treatment and have made the issue a campaign focus.
According to Gamarra, a professor at the FIU, it is widely believed that Harris has had an impact on voting races across the country.
“It gives Mucarsel-Powell a boost,” he said. “But that doesn’t give him the momentum that Democrats really need in a state that’s so decidedly Republican.”
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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
