FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — They engaged in the obligatory, predebate handshake. But when the TV cameras went on Tuesday night, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Val Demings, his challenger, engaged in a heated and aggressive debate, repeatedly shredding each other with descriptions like “lie” and “crazy.”
If the debate was anything, it was decidedly not senatorial — at least by traditional, old-school standards.
Republican incumbent Rubio and Democratic challenger Demings often talked over each other, and often differed in the most basic facts.
The debate was dominated by the most contentious social and cultural issues facing the country, with less attention on economic issues that polling suggests is the most important subject for voters.
The most explosive exchanges came on the abortion issue.
Demings: “As a police detective who investigated cases of rape and incest, no senator, I don’t think it’s OK for a 10-year-old girl to be raped and have to carry the seed of her rapist. No, I don’t think it’s OK for you to make decisions for women and girls. As a senator, I think the decisions are made between the woman, her family, her doctor and her faith.”
Rubio: “I’m 100% pro-life, not because I want to deny anyone their rights, but because I believe that innocent human life is worthy of protection. Every bill I’ve ever sponsored on abortion or every bill I’ve voted on has exceptions. Every one of them does, because that’s what gets passed and that’s what the majority of people support.”
Rubio said that legislation he supports, for a nationwide ban on abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, is “more lenient than every country in Europe except two. The extremist on abortion is Congresswoman Demings. She supports no restrictions and no limitations of any kind.”
She excoriated him for supporting banning abortion without exceptions for victims of rape and incest. He repeated that he’s “100% pro-life” but has voted for abortion restrictions that include exemptions for rape and incest because greater restrictions can’t be passed.
And, Rubio said Demings is an extremist, asserting that she favors allowing unlimited abortion through an entire pregnancy, something she said isn’t true. She said she supports abortion rights until the point of fetal viability.
Demings wants restrictions making it more difficult for some people to buy weapons. Rubio said he supports the Second Amendment and favors much more limited steps.
Both agreed, in broad terms, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a bad actor, that any use of nuclear weapons by Russia must be met with a decisive response, and the U.S. needs to take action to avoid a rising threat from China.
The debate may not have done much to enlighten voters.
“I think this debate lacked a lot of civility. There was a lot of aggressiveness, a lot of attacking each other instead of really talking about plans and ideas and ‘Here’s how I want to solve your problems.’ If voters are looking for who’s going to help me on those issues, especially economic issues, they really didn’t hear much at all,” said Kathryn A. DePalo-Gould, a political scientist at Florida International University, who was in the audience at the Palm Beach State College campus in Lake Worth.
The race is close, but Rubio is leading, making the debate more important for Demings.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls has Rubio 46.5% to 41.8% for Demings, a difference of 4.7 percentage points. None of the published polls has been taken after Sept. 28, when Hurricane Ian hit Florida, so there’s some uncertainty.
Demings has raised millions more than Rubio, but she also has spent heavily. At the beginning of October, finance reports show, he had more campaign cash on hand than Demings for the final stretch of the campaign.
The debate isn’t likely to change the trajectory of the race, DePalo-Gould said.
Demings “went after Rubio as you do as a challenger. But I think she missed an opportunity in the rebuttals and even in her closing arguments to make the case as to why you should vote for her. You have to attack the incumbent, and also the incumbent’s record. You also have to make a case about why she’s better for Florida,” DePalo-Gould said.
Demings said that Rubio “has never run anything at all but his mouth (and) would know nothing about helping people and being there for people when they are in trauma.”
When Rubio said Demings was ineffective, and hadn’t passed any substantive legislation that has become law, she responded that “I’m really disappointed in you, Marco Rubio, because I think there was a time when you did not lie in order to win. I don’t know when that happened.”
And, she said, “the senator has obviously resorted to lying and cheating and trying to steal.”
Rubio, 51, is seeking a third term in the Senate.
In 2016, he sought the Republican presidential nomination and said he wouldn’t seek reelection that year after repeatedly saying he was frustrated by the way the Senate operates.
He changed his mind, and successfully ran for reelection, after losing the nomination to Donald Trump, who went on to become president.
Rubio’s reelection that year marked a comeback of sorts. Trump, who at the time was a resident of New York, trounced Rubio in the March 2016 primary. (It was a rout. Rubio won only his home territory, Miami-Dade County. But winning 63% to 23% there, even though it’s the state’s largest county, couldn’t make up for Trump winning 48% to Rubio’s 24% in the state’s other 66 counties.)
Rubio was an outspoken critic of Trump when they were competing, but supported just about everything he did as president. And Trump endorsed Rubio’s 2022 reelection.
Demings, 65, is serving her third term as a congresswoman from Orlando.
She gained national exposure as one of the House impeachment managers, helping present the case against Trump during his first impeachment trial in 2020. She was among the potential vice presidential candidates considered by President Joe Biden in 2020.
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