Abortion discussed as Debbie Mucarsel-Powell campaigns for US Senate in Tallahassee
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democratic candidate seeking to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Scott, came to Tallahassee Monday with a message: Women’s rights will be the central issue of the fall campaign.
Mucarsel-Powell leads three other candidates in the Democratic primary and trails Scott by two points (within the margin of error) in a recent Florida Atlantic University poll.
She has made Scott’s reproductive rights record a central talking point of her campaign, including his opposition to Amendment 4, which would enshrine abortion access in Florida’s constitution. A request for comment is pending with the Scott campaign.
In a law office across from Florida State University, Murcasel-Powell joined eight women, aged 20 to senior citizen, to discuss the impact of the six-week abortion ban Florida imposed earlier this year. Former Tallahassee City Commissioner Dot Inman-Johnson, now seeking to regain a seat on the board, also attended.
Scott applauded the ban and sponsored a nationwide abortion ban in the U.S. Senate. The women also criticized his vote against legislation to protect access to contraception and to in vitro fertilization, also called IVF treatment.
Mucarsel-Powell later explained she expects a voter backlash to the GOP’s policies on abortion and government overreach in other policy areas such as book bans and voting restrictions.
“The bottom line (on) this race and what is happening in Florida right now? It is freedom. Freedom is a central issue and people are ready to come out and protect their freedoms,” Mucarsel-Powell told a reporter.
Mucarsel-Powell has to get by former Florida House member Brian Rush, South Florida businessman Stanley Campbell, and Dr. Rod Joseph in the August primary before she can face off against Scott in November.
The incumbent Scott faces primary challenges from attorney Keith Gross and novelist John Columbus for the Republican nomination.
Democrats have won just one statewide race since 2012, current party chair Nikki Fried’s 2018 election as Commissioner of Agriculture. She passed on a reelection bid for that office to run unsuccessfully for governor in 2022, losing the primary to former Gov. and U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, who himself later lost to Gov. Ron DeSantis by a whopping 19 points in the general election.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell makes abortion central to US Senate campaign
