Rubio and Demings Trade Blows Through Press Releases

Incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and his team and challenger Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) and her team have traded shots back and forth in the past few days, both claiming that their opponent is not showing up for work. The Rubio campaign brought up the fact that Demings has skipped Homeland Security Committee hearings right before the national shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, and that she has been in the top 1/3 of proxy voters in Congress.

The Demings campaign responded with a press release of their own.

“Just when you think you’ve seen it all, today the NRSC attacked Chief Demings for… showing up to work. Meanwhile, Chief Demings passed four pieces of legislation out of the House as part of the NDAA relating to law enforcement, anti-terrorism, and homeland security. The NRSC’s desperate attack comes the day after we launched a new ad, where Chief Demings attacks Marco Rubio for having one of the worst attendance records in the Senate. On that same day, Marco missed two committee hearings— for an Appropriations subcommittee and Foreign Relations.”

The author of the Demings’ release and communications director for the campaign, Christian Slater, also sent out a tweet regarding Rubio:

“Unlike @marcorubio, Chief Demings actually shows up for work," stated Slater.

The challenger from Orlando has released an onslaught of ads calling herself ‘Chief Demings’ instead of the expected Rep. Demings, referring to her time as Orlando Chief of Police from 2007 to 2011.

In an exclusive interview with The Floridian in mid-April, Rubio had a line of reasoning for this occurrence.

“What, she’s been in the House for six years and has never passed a single bill. She’s done nothing. I mean, I imagine if I was in Congress for six years: my party was in power, the president of my party was in power, and I have nothing to show for it. She probably doesn’t want people to know she’s up there," said Sen. Rubio.