Former Rep. Mucarsel-Powell launches Senate bid against Rick Scott

Former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.) announced Tuesday she’s launching a Senate bid against Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), delivering Democrats a sought-after recruit.

Mucarsel-Powell was elected to Congress in 2018 to represent Florida’s 26th District, defeating then-Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) for the southern Florida House seat. She lost her seat in 2020 against Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.).

In her first ad launching her campaign, Mucarsel-Powell targeted Scott over issues like abortion and his proposal that would have called to sunset Social Security and Medicare, among other federal programs, after five years.

“He’d strip away women’s rights with a national abortion ban. He cuts taxes for himself, but he’d raise them on you,” the Florida Democrat says in the more than two-minute ad of Scott.

“He wrote the plan that could take away the Social Security and Medicare you worked and paid for. And he’s gotten tens of millions of dollars richer, while so-called serving the people, but our costs for prescriptions, health insurance, homeowners insurance, have all gone up,” she continued. “But what do we expect from the CEO of a company that made a fortune robbing Medicare?”

Scott has received backlash from Democrats and members of his party over past comments on Social Security and Medicare. As part of a multi-point proposal last year, Scott pushed for sunsetting all federal legislation, which would have included Social Security and Medicare, and argued that “if a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”

The Florida Republican, under fire, later clarified his proposal “was never intended to apply to” either of the two programs or the U.S. Navy

The ad also references Scott’s tenure as a former CEO for the hospital chain Columbia/HCA.

Although no charges were brought against Scott, the hospital chain was the subject of a federal investigation that required Columbia/HCA to pay hundreds of millions of dollars “to resolve eight whistleblower lawsuits in which the government had intervened alleging that HCA systematically defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other federally funded health care programs through schemes dating back to the late 1980s,” according to a 2003 Justice Department press release.

In a statement, Scott’s campaign called Mucarsel-Powell a “radical socialist” and tied her to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“We’d like to welcome yet another failed congressional candidate to the crowded Democrat primary,” Scott campaign spokeswoman Priscilla Ivasco said.

“Former Congresswoman Mucarsel-Powell is a radical socialist who voted 100% of the time with Nancy Pelosi during her short tenure in Congress, which is why the voters of South Florida booted her out of office the first chance they got,” she added. “Floridians already rejected her once and they will reject her again.”

Mucarsel-Powell’s entry into the race is considered a win for Democrats after top members of the party reportedly pushed the former congresswoman to run for Scott’s Senate seat, according to Politico.

The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates Scott’s seat as “likely Republican.”