Stakes Raised In Florida U.S. Senate Race, With Demings And Rubio Campaign Hauls, And Russell Dropout

Miami FL

06 May, 2022

2:01 PM

Description

A Miami Times Staff Report, the Miami Times May 3, 2022 City of Miami Commissioner Ken Russell has dropped out of the U.S. Senate race to back Congresswoman Val Demings, the clear Democratic front-runner with a shot at ousting Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. "She has a better chance of winning this race than I do right now," Russell said. "By infighting in the primary, it only hurts all of us as a party and this county." Demings' Senate campaign raised more than $10 million in the first quarter of 2022, while Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has collected $5.8 million. Both have now raised more than $30 million apiece in the 2022 U.S. Senate money chase. After accounting for expenditures, both are sitting on about $13 million, according to a report in FloridaPolitics.com. Nationally, only four other candidates have raised more. In contrast, Russell had only raised $240,000 in the first quarter and now has raised $1.2 million. On April 1, he had about $284,000 in his campaign bank. He's now set his sights on Florida House of Representatives District 27, where Republican Maria Elvira Salazar beat Democratic incumbent Donna Shalala with roughly 51% of the vote. He'll face stiff primary opposition with the expected entry into this race by Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins. Rep. Val Demings | Sen. Marco Rubio (FloridaPolitics.com) Both Demings and Rubio are hauling in considerable dollars outside of Florida from interested partisans keenly aware of what is at stake in the upcoming midterm elections. Only a third of Demings' individual donations have come from Floridians and only 40% of Rubio's are in state. In the HD 27 race, Salazarhad her best fundraising quarter since she assumed office last year, raking in $690,000 between New Year's Day and March 31 while still spending heavily on her reelection campaign. According to FloridaPolitics.com, by the end of last month, Salazar held about $1.96 million of the almost $3 million she's raised while running for and holding office. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.