PINECREST, Fla. — The only Latina running for a U.S. Senate seat in November is trying to defeat a Republican candidate in an increasingly red state, emphasizing her moderate stance on many issues, including Latin America policy.
Former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat, says families across the state are struggling — and she knows from experience. Her mother lives with her and her 24-year-old daughter also lived under the same roof until recently. All because housing has become too expensive in Florida, Mucarsel-Powell said.
She said these everyday struggles are what drives her to challenge Sen. Rick Scott, a well-funded Republican seeking his second term in a state that has turned increasingly red in recent years.
Scott led Mucarsel-Powell by 4 points in a recent poll by the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Laboratory, within the poll’s margin of error and consistent with other polls that show Scott with a single digit advantage. 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, and Mucarsel-Powell and Scott face nominal competition for their parties’ nominations.
Visiting a cafe in June in this upscale Miami-Dade suburb, Mucarsel-Powell described how she would help reduce the cost of living for Floridians, including working to reduce prescription prices and property insurance rates, and pushing to expand the use of solar panels.
“Seniors have to go back to work because they can’t afford property insurance rates, students can’t afford to get the education they want because of the cost of living,” she said.
Mucarsel-Powell, 53, who made history as the first Ecuadorian-American and the first member of Congress born in South America, emigrated from Ecuador when she was 14. Her mother was cleaning houses when she arrived, and Mucarsel-Powell said she helped her. Her father died in armed violence in Ecuador.
After one term, Mucarsel-Powell lost her seat to Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez in 2020. She went on to join the gun violence prevention organization Giffords, founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.
Currently, there has been only one Latina elected to the U.S. Senate: Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada.
Mucarsel-Powell faces a tough race as an underdog, said Eduardo Gamarra, a political science professor and researcher at Florida International University.
Republicans have a majority in Florida in registered voters, Gamarra said. “So from that alone you could say the Mucarsel-Powell battle is a tough one,” he said.
Scott, 71, has a significant name in the state, having served eight years as governor. He won both gubernatorial races with less than 50% of the vote and barely gained a majority in his 2018 Senate election victory by about 10,000 votes. Scott is the richest senator in office and has the ability to self-finance his campaign. He lent or donated nearly $14 million of his own money to his campaign until July. In 2018, Scott spent an estimated $63 million to defeat Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.
Mucarsel-Powell, in her campaign events and Zoom calls, calls herself bipartisan, and GovTrack considers it voting history as “purple,” meaning she voted with both Democrats and Republicans.
Scott’s campaign challenged 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 AOC before voters fired her,” Scott campaign spokesman Will wrote. Hampson, in an email sent a statement. “She has been silent about our open border, big spending that she voted for that has caused inflation to crush Floridians. …She’s a socialist with nothing to go on, so she’s forced to lie about Rick Scott. It’s sad and Florida voters will reject her in November if she wins the primary.”
For years, as part of their appeal to the state’s large number of Latin American voters, Republicans have accused state and national Democrats of being “socialists” akin to 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 America policies. She said the government should not have removed Cuba from the list of countries that do not fully cooperate against terrorism.
Florida, once a swing state, has moved further to the right in recent years. According to two recent research, Former President Donald Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris by an average of 8.5 points in Florida, a state President Joe Biden won in 2020 by about 3%.
The November elections will be a test of Florida Democrats’ standing after devastating defeats in the midterm elections. Governor Ron DeSantis was re-elected in a landslide, becoming the first Republican governor to heavily win Hispanic Miami-Dade County since 2002. Republican Senator Marco Rubio was also re-elected in 2022 by over 16%.
Focus on the right to abortion
Mucarsel-Powell is making abortion rights a key issue in the race.
“It’s a health issue. It’s a civil rights issue,” she said, adding that it’s a decision that should be made in privacy between the woman and her doctor.
Florida recently enacted a six-week abortion ban. As nearby states have passed similar bans, the closest state offering abortion beyond six weeks is North Carolina, where it is legal up to 12 weeks. Virginia is the second closest state, and abortions are legal there up to 26 weeks. Scott said he would support replacing the six-week ban with a 15-week ban.
Florida residents will be able to vote in November on whether to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution: the ballot measure seeks an amendment to ban restrictions on abortion before fetal viability, which is considered around the 24th week of pregnancy. It would include exceptions beyond that point for “the health of the patient, as determined by the patient’s physician.”
In Florida, ballot measures need to reach 60% to pass, meaning they need support from both Democrats and Republicans. Some abortion rights advocates have balked at the politicization of the issue.
“It’s not political. It shouldn’t be political. But there is a party that has politicized it by taking away that right and that freedom,” Mucarsel-Powell said, adding that the six-week ban “happened in the state legislature with a supermajority, which is a Republican supermajority. That’s a fact. This is not politicizing.”
She also mentioned that Scott voted against a bill that would prohibit states from imposing restrictions about IVF treatments and their accessibility, while also releasing an ad in support of IVF. Scott responded to criticism at the time by saying that he supported a bill to strengthen state protections for in vitro fertilization, not federal ones.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are outspoken supporters of abortion rights and access to in vitro fertilization and fertility treatment and have made the issue a campaign priority.
According to FIU professor Gamarra, there is a general feeling that Harris has had an impact on electoral races across the country.
“This will give Mucarsel-Powell a boost,” he said. “But that won’t give him the boost that Democrats really need in a state that is so resolutely Republican.”
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