A handful of sheriffs are taking aim at Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), who is running for Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) seat in the upper chamber, accusing the former Orlando chief of police of not being supportive enough of law enforcement.
The officials, previously featured in uniform in a Rubio campaign ad hitting Demings earlier this summer, told the Washington Free Beacon the Florida Democrat doesn’t have their support.
The sheriffs were reacting to recent comments in which Demings dismissed Rubio’s attempts to undermine her credentials in law enforcement.
“I don’t know how much Marco Rubio underestimates Floridians, but if he thinks he can make anybody believe that I want to defund the police — I am the police,” she said.
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Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith told the outlet that she “is no longer the police and didn’t have our backs when it counted most,” and Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods alleged she “certainly doesn’t use it to back law enforcement when she votes.”
Support for police has become an increasingly prominent issue in swing states, including Florida, with polls showing the two lawmakers in a tight battle to represent the Sunshine State in the Senate.
Rubio highlights the backing he’s received from the Florida Police Benevolent Association, 55 Florida sheriffs, and the Florida Police Chiefs Association while trying to link Demings with progressives’ “defund the police” movement — an accusation she has vehemently denied.
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Demings has made her 27 years serving as an officer a central component of her campaign, featuring members of law enforcement defending her in an ad.
The Florida Fraternal Order of Police President Steve Zona took issue with her recent comments, telling the Washington Free Beacon that she “shouldn’t be going around saying she is the police when she hasn’t been for over a decade and has failed to represent the needs of law enforcement in Washington.”
