Third Way Applauds Debbie Mucarsel-Powell's Run for Senate

WASHINGTON — Third Way released the following statement from Matt Bennett, Executive Vice President for Public Affairs:

"We couldn’t be happier to see former Representative Debbie Mucarsel-Powell running for Senate in Florida to challenge extremist incumbent Senator Rick Scott.

"Debbie was part of the wave of moderate Democrats who flipped red seats in 2018 to take back the House majority. Then, Republicans targeted her with a flood of ads lying that she was a "socialist," even though her family fled violence and persecution in Ecuador. Mucarsel-Powell was an early voice working to rebut those attacks and calling on Democrats to pay close attention to the needs of the Latino electorate in South Florida which was a frequent target of disinformation. We were proud to partner with her as a founding advisor for Shield PAC, which helped eight other Democratic women beat back the GOP's culture war attacks in 2022.

"Debbie’s mainstream record and policy agenda are a stark contrast to Rick Scott’s. While she has been a thoughtful leader on public safety who rejected the extremes of the left, Scott actually seeks to defund the police, having proposed a massive cut in federal law enforcement personnel that would cost the jobs of nearly 50,000 federal agents. While Scott supports a six-week abortion ban, refused to support commonsense gun safety legislation, and has made it his mission to means test Social Security and Medicare, Mucarsel-Powell has done the opposite. She understands that her community needs a senator who will create ladders of opportunity to earn a good middle-class life. Floridians don't want any more chaos and division; they want competent leadership and results.

"With Florida’s right-wing leadership making the state a magnet for loony ideas and cruel public policy, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell stands as a model of pragmatic, principled leadership. We're excited to see such a strong candidate tackle GOP extremism head-on in a critically important state."