Democrat and U.S. Representative Stephanie Murphy announced Monday that she will not challenge current U.S. Senator Marco Rubio for his seat in the 2022 election.
Murphy made her decision after U.S. House Representative Val Demings declared she would run for U.S. Senate. Demings had initially indicated she might run for Governor against Ron DeSantis.
In her statement, Murphy explained, “The reality is that Marco Rubio will not be an easy opponent especially if it’s on the heels of a bruising primary where Democrats spend millions attacking each other instead of using those millions to build the infrastructure we so desperately need to win.” She then added, “Instead of running for the U.S. Senate, I will devote my energy to helping make our party stronger.”
After Murphy’s decision to seek reelection in the House and the announcement of Demings’ 2022 Senate run, former state attorney Aramis Ayala, who announced her 2022 Senate campaign in early May, will now run for the seat left vacant by Demings. Although Demings seems like the front-runner to challenge Rubio, Democrat and former Representative Alan Grayson chimed in with his possible run against Demings in the 2022 primary.
Even with Murphy deciding not to challenge Rubio, she made it clear that her goal in reelection is to build the Democratic Party “towards statewide success” and to “regroup and re-energize” the party in Florida with “unity of effort… to put the White House, a Senate seat, and more state and local races in the Democratic column in 2024.”
Murphy’s decision to seek reelection will help Democrats keep control of the House and retain a team player who facilitates cooperation among Democrats in Congress. According to Murphy, “We’ve had too many close losses in Florida, and so I wanted to use my experience from winning tough races to help the party prepare itself” for the future.
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Casey Owens is a writer at The Florida Capital Star. Follow him on Twitter at @cowensreports. Email tips to [email protected].Â
