FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Sen. Rick Scott is spending millions of dollars to reach out to Hispanic voters in Florida. Hispanic voters are a key voting group in November’s re-election campaign and are increasingly leaning toward Republicans.
Scott’s campaign announced Wednesday that it plans to spend about $700,000 a week on a series of ads in English and Spanish on radio, digital, television and streaming services.
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Over the next few weeks, the campaign will release a variety of ads aimed at this key voting group, which has been voting increasingly Republican over the past few election cycles. The ads will run in Miami, West Palm Beach, Orlando and Tampa, all major cities in Florida that are important to his re-election campaign, and Miami has a large population of Hispanic voters. Most common.
The first TV ad, released Wednesday, made no mention of Debbie Mucarsel Powell, a former U.S. congresswoman from Miami who is running to unseat the U.S. Senate seat.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) addresses attendees at the Republican Florida Freedom Summit on November 4, 2023 in Kissimmee, Florida. To keep his seat in Florida, Scott will need to appeal to key groups of Florida voters. situation. As part of this goal, Scott is spending millions of dollars to focus on Florida’s prominent group of Hispanic voters in a new ad series developed by the senator. (AP Photo/Ferrand M. Ebenhack)
Democrats this week celebrated a glimmer of hope in this election cycle after the Florida Supreme Court approved a ballot plan for abortion rights to be decided by Florida voters this November. ing.
“In Florida, we understand how socialism stifles the human spirit,” Scott said in an ad Wednesday morning. “That’s why I’m fighting against socialist policies in Washington.”
Scott, like other Republicans, has often accused Democrats of leaning toward socialism. The accusations continue to create a rift between Democrats and a group of Hispanic voters who fled communist regimes in Cuba and Venezuela, who make up a large portion of Miami-Dade County’s electorate. This traditionally blue county tilted toward red in the most recent midterm cycle and is now Florida’s most populous county, with more than 60% of registered voters identifying as Hispanic.
Scott said last month that he has put a lot of effort into talking to Hispanic voters and has found that “everyone cares about the same issues” such as education, public safety and jobs.
“People who came to this country legally from other countries came here because they wanted the rule of law,” Scott said. “They want what America has to offer.”
Mucarsel-Powell, who announced her campaign last August, was elected in 2018. She was born in Ecuador and became the first Ecuadorian-American and first South American-born delegate to Congress. She lost her seat to Republican Rep. Carlos Jimenez after one term.
Mucarsel-Powell said last month that she relates to Hispanic voters because her story is similar to “so many people here in South Florida.”
As part of the campaign, she does biweekly Spanish-language radio interviews to reach out to the Hispanic community. In these interviews, she often addresses voters concerned about socialism and accuses Scott of spreading “misinformation.”
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“I have seen with my own eyes what happens when a dictator comes to power,” Mucarsel-Powell said. “So many people identify with that, which makes it all the more difficult for him to truly connect with the reality of Latinos here in South Florida and the reality that we face. It will be very difficult.”
The ad campaign was first reported by NBC News.
