The last time two-term Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was on a prime-time debate stage was in 2016 when he wilted under withering personal attacks by then-fellow Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who famously belittled him as “Little Marco.”
During their U.S. Senate debate at Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth on Oct. 18, Rep. Val Demings (R-Fla.) tried to again rattle Rubio by using similar schoolyard tactics, aggressively and repeatedly calling him a liar and disparaging his 12-year record in Washington and eight years in Tallahassee, where he served as Speaker of the House 2006-08.
But this time, Rubio didn’t lose his footing, and dished it out as much as Demings did in their first—and only—debate, calling the three-term congressional rep and former Orlando Police chief an “extremist” who espouses across-the-board “crazy” progressive policies.
While the hour-long event, hosted by WPBF 25 in West Palm Beach and staged three weeks before voters go to the polls on Nov. 8, was often contentious and larded with insults, it also offered moments of substantive clarity with articulated distinctions between the incumbent and challenger.
There was even consensus, of sorts. Both pledged to lobby for more federal assistance for Floridians in Hurricane Ian’s wake—Rubio touting his record in securing long-term recovery investments after past storms and Demings saying it’s past time “to get serious about climate change”—and agreed to continue backing Ukraine in defending itself from Russia while bolstering NATO.
