Tipsheet

Marco Rubio Has a Prayer Request Before November's Midterms

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  July 26, 2022 2:00 PM

As the midterm elections draw closer, Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has a prayer request: that President Joe Biden would campaign against him on his home turf.

Issued via tweet, Sen. Rubio responded to a post from President Biden's account that conflated support for the Second Amendment freedom of law-abiding citizens with being unsupportive of law enforcement. 

For Democrat candidates facing voters this November, especially those in red states, Biden is seen as a dead weight and a liability for their campaigns. With chronically low approval numbers and many Americans rightly pinning blame for their economic struggles on Biden and his party, Biden showing up to supposedly help Democrats in Florida would likely do the opposite. Even if Rubio's prayers are answered and Biden decides to go stump in Florida before the midterms, the president might be making the trip alone. 

Already in the 2022 midterm election cycle, several Democrats running for statewide office have shunned Biden when he's made visits to their states. When Biden visited Ohio in June, the Dem nominees for U.S. Senate and governor both cited "scheduling conflicts" and refused to appear with the president. 

Similarly in January, Stacey Abrams ditched Biden during his visit to Georgia despite his trip's focus on voting rights — a major issue for Abrams and something to which the sore loser has pinned her political career.

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In Florida, Rubio is likely to face U.S. Rep. Val Demings — once on Biden's shortlist to be his vice presidential pick in 2020 — the former Orlando police chief who has jumped to the left since leaving law enforcement to meet radical Democrats' embrace of anti-cop policies. 

Recently, Demings was slated to campaign with — but ended up bailing on — state Rep. Anna Eskamani who has been vocal in her calls to defund the police. Demings also previously called a plan by the City of Minneapolis to dismantle its police department a "very thoughtful" proposal and campaigned about as far away from Florida as she could get in San Francisco with radical defund the police-backing Mayor London Breed in June. 

"Val Demings went to Washington and abandoned the men and women who serve in law enforcement, calling Defunding the Police ‘thoughtful’ and violent riots ‘a beautiful sight,’" noted Rubio campaign communications director Elizabeth Gregory of Demings' anti-law and order statements recently. "In voting with Nancy Pelosi and for Biden’s disastrous agenda 100% of the time, Demings proved she cares more about following the lead of Democrats in Washington than she does fighting for Floridians’ interests."

Rubio, despite Biden's claims that he doesn't support police, has been endorsed by the National Association of Police Organizations along with 55 Florida sheriffs and other Sunshine State law enforcement groups.