(Screenshot from Facebook)
ORLANDO | U.S. Rep. Val Demings officially announced June 9 that she will challenge Sen. Marco Rubio for his Senate seat in 2022.
Demings made the announcement in a video where she talked about her upbringing in Jacksonville, becoming Orlando’s first female police chief and being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2017.
“People ask me, Val, where do you get your tireless faith that things can always get better? I got it here in Jacksonville, Florida” Demings began in the video message. “When you grow up in the South poor, Black and female, you have to have faith in progress and opportunity. My father was a janitor and my mother was a maid. She said, ‘Never tire of doing good, never tire.”
I’m running for U.S. Senate because I will never tire of standing up for what is right. Never tire of serving Florida. Never tire of doing good.
Join my campaign today: https://t.co/rHVPBuSzKU pic.twitter.com/HuWB80Mrxh
— Val Demings (@valdemings) June 9, 2021
As representative of Florida’s 10th District — which includes parts of Orange, Lake and Polk Counties as well as Orlando’s popular Disney, Universal and SeaWorld theme parks — Demings has championed LGBTQ issues including taking on the FDA’s blood ban on gay and bisexual men, calling on the passage of the Equality Act and, along with Reps. Darren Soto and Stephanie Murphy, pushed for Pulse to be designated as a national memorial.
“I’m running for U.S. Senate because I will never tire of standing up for what is right. Never tire of serving Florida. Never tire of doing good,” Demings posted to Twitter when her announcement video was shared.
Rubio responded to Demings’ announcement with a video of his own, calling the Congresswoman a “do nothing House member” and “a far left liberal Democrat.”
Demings shared Rubio’s video on her Twitter with a photo of herself in her police chief uniform.
https://t.co/kPlysL0aZd pic.twitter.com/06iEZMpmfS
— Val Demings (@valdemings) June 9, 2021
Rubio has served as a Florida senator since 2011. Florida will vote on its next senator Nov. 8, 2022.
