After Florida Democrats conducted a full-court press to draft former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell to run against Sen. Rick Scott for the U.S. Senate in 2024, the former congresswoman has just announced that she will indeed challenge Sen. Scott.
"I'm not afraid to take on anyone who doesn't put Florida first. That means you, Rick Scott, That's why I'm running for the U.S. Senate," tweeted Mucarsel-Powell,
In her announcement video, the one-time moderate or centrist Democrat Mucarsel-Powell touches on the existing Democratic Party talking points that have been used against Republicans over the past few election cycles.
Republicans contend that these talking points are rooted in Democratic Socialism, an ideology that fueled election night loses for Democrats in both the 2020 and 2022 elections.
"He’d strip away women's rights with the national abortion ban. He cuts taxes for himself but he'd raised them on you. He wrote the plan that could take away the Social Security and Medicare you worked and paid for
and he's gotten 10s of millions of dollars richer while so-called serving the people," states Mucarsel-Powell in the campaign video.
Mucarsel-Powell has moved to the left since losing her congressional race in 2020 to Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R), embracing the "Green New Deal" and "Medicaid for All," will have her work cut out for her with Sen. Scott.
With one stroke of the pen, Scott can fund his entire senatorial campaign, while Mucarsel-Powell will have to rely on national Democrats to raise the tens of millions of dollars needed to defeat the sitting U.S. Senator.
But while Republicans will also help raise Scott millions of campaign dollars, Democrats have proven that they have the capability of countering Scott and Republicans.
Former Congresswoman Val Demings outraised sitting U.S. Senator Marco Rubio in their contentious 2022 senate race, but in the end, Sen. Rubio crushed Rep. Demings by 16 percentage points on election night.
Rep. Demings raised a whopping $81 million to Rubio's $50 million.
My name is Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. I'm an immigrant, a Latina, and a mother.
I'm not afraid to take on anyone who doesn't put Florida first. That means you, Rick Scott. That's why I'm running for U.S. Senate.
Join our campaign at https://t.co/SEjNvvtjF7. pic.twitter.com/Au5T6W6dPe
— Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (@DebbieforFL) August 22, 2023
