The Free Press this week noted how Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings has suddenly reclaimed the title of “chief” in her campaign against Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.
Sensing that voters perceive her party has drifted far, far to the left under President Joe Biden, Demings seeks to remind voters of her nearly 30-year law enforcement career, which ended with her as the police chief in Orlando.
Yet, as The Free Press noted, Demings has bigger problems in trying to unseat Rubio. For one thing, she has voted with Biden 100 percent of the time.
Voters seem to sense that the “chief” is not the answer.
Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy recently released a poll that revealed Rubio holds a “modest” lead over Demings. The margin is 49 percent to 42 percent.
That’s a greater margin than the 4.5 percentage points Biden defeated former President Donald Trump by when the votes were counted in November 2020. At that time, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, declared that Biden’s win should have been “called a blowout.”
Nonetheless, Mason-Dixon predicted that the race could “significantly tighten” as it goes along. One reason: Demings has huge financial backing, having raised $20 million, although she trails Rubio in cash-on-hand.
Yet here’s another problem for her: She lags behind Rubio with independents by a 47-37 margin.
The pollster also noted that Rubio holds a 95-68 advantage in name recognition.
That, too, should tighten, Mason-Dixon added. “As that gap closes, independent voters must swing to Demings. As the campaign progresses, that will be the trend to watch for — absent that shift, Rubio will be re-elected.”
Demings’ biggest obstacle, according to the pollster, is Biden’s terrible standing with Florida voters.
Overall, 55 percent of voters disapprove of his performance so far. Among those critical independents, the ratio is even higher – 61 percent.
“In order to flip Rubio’s seat, Demings needs Biden’s standing among state voters to significantly improve over the next eight months. It will be difficult for her to make the necessary gains among those who are unaffiliated as long as they remain hostile to the president,” Mason-Dixon opined.
Yet, Deming has voted with Biden 100 percent of the time.
If she suddenly starts to move toward the center, the shift will be rightly viewed as cynical and hollow – much like her re-embrace of the “chief” title, something she once proudly boasted of but ditched just ahead of the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests, and which she continued to hide until recently.
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