Florida Rep. Val Demings (D) visited the Arco Iris (Rainbow) Restaurant & Café over the weekend, making a campaign pit stop to discuss the Latino vote in the upcoming 2022 election. Rep. Demings is challenging Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R), and the race is expected to be one of the most closely watched and expensive races in the midterm election.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R) is one of a number of GOP officials that has criticized Demings.
“Last quarter, a Radical Liberal and former Trump Impeachment Manager Val Demings raised $8.4 MILLION to unseat Trump-endorsed Marco Rubio,” he wrote in a message to supporters. The Florida Senator has accused Demings of being a “socialist” lawmaker. Rubio further criticized Demings, accusing her of staying “tight-lipped” after the Biden Administration delisted FARC from its list of terrorist organizations.
In South Florida, a state that decidedly went for President Donald Trump (R) in the 2020 election, a number of Latino voters have voiced their disapproval of socialist policies in light of the Cuban protests that took place earlier this year.
In taking a trip to the Café, Demings commented on the furor many Cubans feel when it comes to the Castro regime’s effect on the island.
The Florida Democrat said that she has taken part in two roundtables with members of the Cuban-American community, adding that “we support their quest for freedom on the island.”
“And to hear their stories about how the generations, how they still have family that are in Cuba and how they’re certainly very concerned about access to the internet,” she shared, noting that “when they send money, their families being able to receive that money and it not being skimmed off the top by the government” is a concern for the Cuban people.”
She affirmed that a priority for her is “making sure we support our protestors” and making sure “that they’re not subject to violence” because “as an elected representative, certainly in the Senate, we have to be directly responsible or responsive to them.”
