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FL Rep. Val Demings is trying to unseat the widely popular Marco Rubio in the Senate. However, polls indicate that Demings’ attempt is unlikely to succeed. FiveThirtyEight gives Rubio a 4.7% advantage over Demings and gives Rubio an 87% chance to retain his seat.
Rubio faced a stronger candidate in 2016, with more financial support than Val Demings back when Florida was still a swing state, and won by 7 points while taking 48% of the Latino vote, in a dismal election year for the GOP among Hispanics.
Thus, it is hardly surprising that Rubio is a large favorite for retaining the seat. He was popular with Hispanics when the GOP wasn’t, which only makes him even more popular now, the Trumpian base of the party does not hate him, and he has proven to be an effective political operator.
But two recent scandals from the Demings campaign have made things easier for the Cuban-American senator.
Demings released a campaign video in which she seems to ask people affected by Hurricane Ian to… Donate to her campaign.
The video asks for “a generous grassroots donation right now to help my people-powered movement flip Florida blue.” ‘Grassroots’ in this context is hardly anything else than people affected by the hurricane, which is… odd, to say the least.
But that’s not it.
Fox News reported that Demings lives in the very exclusive Phillips Landing. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe that living comfortably is necessarily a problem. However, it seems a bit hypocritical to live in a gated community with 24-hour surveillance while supporting open borders and at least some tenets of the Defund the Police movement (although she now claims otherwise).
Rubio would have been the favorite against any Democratic candidate in this election. However, Democrats seem to have chosen one of the weakest possibilities from their field.
Edgar is political scientist and philosopher. He defends the Catholic intellectual tradition. Edgar writes about religion, ideology, culture, US politics, abortion, and the Supreme Court. Twitter: @edgarjbb_ // Edgar es politólogo y filósofo. Defiende la tradición intelectual católica. Edgar escribe sobre religión, ideología, cultura, política doméstica, aborto y la Corte Suprema. Twitter: @edgarjbb_