Schumer's last anti-progressive Florida Senate candidate, Patrick Murphy, was an absolute zero... utterly worthless and with, as Schumer discovered halfway through the campaign, zero chance to beat Rubio. It should be noted that Rubio was extremely weak himself at that time, having just come off a bruising battle in which he had been pulverized by Trump. Aside from regularly making a fool out of a pathetic Rubio on the campaign trail, Trump slaughtered him in primary voting IN FLORIDA. Trump won all 99 Florida delegates:
Trump- 1,079,870 (45.72%)
Rubio- 638,661 (27.04%)
Cruz- 404,891 (17.14%)
Kasich- 159,976 (6.77%)
Bush- 43,511 (1.84%)
Rubio won only one of Florida's 67 counties, his native Miami-Dade (and narrowly, 42-39% against Trump). Rubio immediately withdrew from the presidential race and declared he would run for reelection as a senator instead. Schumer insisted on the right-of-center, daddy-funded Murphy, starting a whispering campaign against progressive challenger Alan Grayson, which the status quo media was only too enthusiastic to echo-- constantly. Schumer lined up not just conservative senators for Murphy-- like Claire McCaskill, Jon Tester, Bob Casey and Tim Kaine-- but also faithless progressives looking out for themselves like Cory Booker, Brian Schatz, Sheldon Whitehouse and Sherrod Brown. And when all that still wasn't enough, Schumer got Obama to record a pro-Murphy massage for African-American radio and... that was that.
Murphy had no general election campaign and was just counting on Hillary's coattails on election day. Trump beat her 4,617,886 (49.02%) to 4,504,975 (47.82%) and Rubio over-performed Trump while Murphy, predictably, under-performed Hillary:
Rubio- 4,835,191 (51.98%)
Murphy- 4,122,088 (44.31%)
Schumer, famous for never being able to learn a lesson, is determined to run another conservative Democrat against Rubio again and this time he seems to have settled on Orlando area Congresswoman Val Demings, who isn't quite as bad as Murphy, but still a terrible choice in terms of the most important questions:
1- would she make a good senator?
2- does she have something to offer voters as an alternative Rubio?
Since she has been a worthless member of the House, it's reasonable to assume she would be a worthless member of the Senate. And Rubio, who accomplishes nothing in the Senate, wouldn't have to worry about her being able to point to any tangible accomplishments of her own to contrast against him. This morning, Marc Caputo-- always eager to carry Schumer's water-- and Olivia Beavers wrote a Demings puff piece for Politico, in which Demings says she might run for governor or might run for senator.
Caputo wrote "As a former top police officer and a Black woman, Demings occupies a unique space in the nation’s political dialogue over race and policing." No mention that when she was police chief, Orlando's crime rate was 4 times the national average. No mention that her police force was violent and brutal and focused on terrorizing people trying to feed homeless people. Also no mention of something everyone in Orlando remembers well, that, as police chief, she lost her gun at a party.
Fernand Amandi, a hack Florida Democratic Party consultant told Caputo that "Val Demings has proven she can stand on the national stage, whether it’s as a House impeachment manager or a possible running mate for Biden or taking on Jim Jordan." Anyone paying attention who watched her as an impeachment manager saw someone who questioned no witnesses and just read-- poorly-- prepared speeches by her staff. Completely unimpressive. You want to see what a competent impeachment manager can do? Watch Jamie Raskin, not Val Demings. Running mate for Biden? What a joke! That never happened; it was all smoke and mirrors, even if it impressed Fernand Amandi. And I enjoyed her ambush of Gym Jordan as much as anyone but... that's what you're going to base a Senate race on?
Like Murphy, she has absolutely nothing to offer anyone. She talks about nothing but herself and gives the same speech all the time: "I'm the granddaughter of slaves" + a verb + a noun. Healthcare? Doesn't know a thing about it. The Climate Crisis? Doesn't know a thing about it. Economic inequality? Doesn't know a thing about it. Listening to her speeches you come away thinking she doesn't know anything about anything... other than an almost Trumpian sense of self-obsession. Lucky she was teacher's pet, first for Clyburn and then for Pelosi. Without that not even Schumer or Caputo would know who the hell she is.
Alan Grayson is likely to have an announcement about the Florida Senate race in the next week or so-- maybe even in the few days. I'm sure that's giving Schumer-- notorious for his fear and loathing of critical thinkers with independent minds-- shpilkes. Please visit the Blue America 2022 Senate page here, where there's a growing list of the best independent-minded candidates running.