Former US Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell to challenge Rick Scott for Senate seat
MIAMI - Former US Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell has announced that she is running for the US Senate in 2024 against Rick Scott.
Tuesday morning, Mucarsel-Powell declared her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the US Senate seat on X, formerly known as Twitter.
On her campaign website, Mucarsel-Powell said she decided to challenge the Republican senator "because our democracy, our economy and our rights are all on the line - and Senator Rick Scott has failed Floridians."
The website notes that Florida is one of the least affordable states in the nation and "Senator Rick Scott wants to raise taxes on families and end Social Security and Medicare coverage."
"As someone who takes care of her elderly mother, Debbie will always fight to protect Medicare, Social Security and access to quality, affordable healthcare," according to the website.
It also notes that Scott has pushed for a nationwide abortion ban and he's "working to take the rights away of women and their families."
In response to Mucarsel-Powell's announcement, Scott posted on X that she is a "Washington's radical puppet who was hand-picked by Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi."
Mucarsel-Powell was elected to the US House in 2018, winning a swing South Florida district in a wave year for Democrats and becoming the first Ecuadorian American and first South American immigrant elected to Congress. But she lost her seat after just one term in 2020 to Republican Carlos Gimenez as President Donald Trump was carrying her district and the state. She declined to seek a rematch in 2022.
Now, Mucarsel-Powell hopes to challenge Scott in a race that could further shed light on whether Florida should still be considered a swing state. Scott was elected to the Senate in the same year that voters sent Powell to the House, unseating Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by the thinnest of margins - about 10,000 votes out of more than 8 million ballots cast.
Since then, Florida has turned sharply to the right. The number of registered Republicans in the state surpassed Democrats in late 2021, and the chasm has widened to half a million voters. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis sailed to reelection by 19 points last year, just four years after winning office after a recount, and the party now holds every statewide office for the first time since Reconstruction. Meanwhile, the state Democratic Party is rebuilding on the fly in hopes it can convince donors to invest in the state by 2024.
Amid that environment, Democrats have struggled to find a candidate to take on Scott, a former two-term governor and one of the richest members of Congress, who has leaned on his considerable wealth to win three statewide races. Scott, who once harbored ambitions of running for president, announced he would seek reelection earlier this year. He has already campaigned for the past six months when not in Washington, vowing to visit each of the state's 67 counties before November 2024.
"Joe Biden and Democrats are endangering Florida's future with their reckless spending, open borders, and woke socialist policies," Scott said when he launched his 67-county tour. "If we continue down this path, the future of Florida and the country will be filled with high prices and woke socialism."
In Mucarsel-Powell, Democrats are enlisting a seasoned candidate with a compelling back story. She was born in Ecuador and emigrated to the United States at age 14 with her mother. Her father, who stayed behind, was shot and killed outside his home when Mucarsel-Powell was 24. In her lone term in the US House, Mucarsel-Powell made curbing gun violence and helping South American migrants a priority. She joined the gun safety group Giffords as a senior adviser following her congressional loss.
Mucarsel-Powell, a mother of three, including two daughters, said she is further motivated by the sea change in abortion access following the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. That includes Florida's new law banning abortion after six-weeks, a measure Scott has said he would have signed had it reached his desk when he was governor. (The ban has not yet taken effect amid a separate legal challenge before the state Supreme Court.)
Abortion rights advocates are collecting signatures to force a referendum that would enshrine access to the procedure in Florida's constitution, which could appear on next year's ballot alongside Mucarsel-Powell and Scott.
"This is about a woman's right to privacy, a woman's right to self-determination," Mucarsel-Powell said. "Rights that have been enshrined in federal law. Rights that would allow women to have access to reproductive health care."
Mucarsel-Powell is not the only Democrat looking to take on Scott next year. Other candidates in the Democratic primary include former US Rep. Alan Grayson and Navy veteran Phil Ehr, who unsuccessfully challenged GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz in 2020.
A history of close elections
On paper, the conditions for Scott's fourth statewide race would appear to be more favorable than any of his previous elections, all decided by 1 point or less. Donors have shied away from Florida after Trump won back-to-back elections there, and it is unclear how much Democrats intend to commit to challenging Scott. CNN previously reported that President Joe Biden's advisers insist they have not written off the state, emboldened by the deeply conservative agenda DeSantis pursued as he readied his campaign for the White House.
