Florida Democratic Rep. Val Demings announced Wednesday that she is running to challenge Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for his seat in the upper chamber.
What are the details?
“When you grow up in the South poor, Black and female, you have to have faith in progress and opportunity,” Demings says in a video announcing her 2022 run. “My father was a janitor and my mother was a maid,” she continued, adding that her mother told her, “Val, never grow tired of doing good. Never tire.”
NBC News reported that Demings went on to give her background in law enforcement. The Democrat served in the Orlando Police Department and eventually rose to become the department’s first female chief.
“I’m running for the United States Senate, because of the two simple words, ‘never tired,'” Demings, a three-term House member said in the ad. “Over the next few weeks, I hope to share more of my story with more of you. It’s a simple question: Can my unlikely story of opportunity expand to more Americans and more Floridians?”
Never Tire | Val Demings for U.S. Senate
www.youtube.com
Following Demings’ announcement, Rubio released a video of his own in reaction to her challenge.
“Look, I’ve always known that my opponent for the Senate was going to be a far-left liberal Democrat,” the two-term Republican senator said in the clip. “Today we just found out which one of them [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Shumer’s (D-N.Y.) picked.”
“Congresswoman Val Demings is a do-nothing House member with not a single significant legislative achievement in her time in Congress,” Rubio went on to say.
No matter who wins the democratic Senate primary in #Florida my opponent will be a far left extremist
#Sayfie… https://t.co/mdTi26a0kG
— Marco Rubio (@Marco Rubio)1623240099.0
Anything else?
ABC News noted that Demings’ announcement comes after months of speculation that she would run for Senate, and she is the first Democrat “with national name recognition” to throw her hat in the ring.
NBC News added that Demings “received national attention last year when she served as an impeachment manager in the first Senate trial of President Donald Trump over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations into Joe Biden and his son Hunter.”