As voters voice their choice leading up to the Nov. 8 midterm elections, candidates in high-profile Florida races made appearances in and out of the Sunshine State, and demonstrators in Hialeah showed their support for a Republican canvasser days after he was brutally beaten.
7News cameras captured Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Val Demings as she made the rounds to small businesses in South Florida and a get-out-the-vote rally on Saturday.
“I sit here as a candidate for the United States Senate,” she said during one of her stops.
Demings is trying to close the polling gap between her and incumbent Marco Rubio.
“Broward County, thank you for working hard to protect our democracy,” said Demings.
“It’s important we get out and vote and run through the tape,” said Rubio during a recent town hall.
Meanwhile, Florida gubernatorial candidates Charlie Crist and Ron DeSantis spent the day making college football game appearances. The Republican governor is projected to lead his challenger by double digits.
After tossing the coin at the start of the Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville, DeSantis hit the campaign trail, but not in Florida. Instead, he urged New Yorkers to vote for Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin.
All these appearances took place in the shadow of a bulletin issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and other agencies warning of the potential of attacks on election officials and candidates.
Early Friday morning, House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked in their San Francisco home. Last Sunday, Republican activist Christopher Monzon was beaten up while canvassing for Marco Rubio in Hialeah.
Supporters cheered on Monzon during a rally held in Hialeah on Saturday. According to The Miami Herald, the event was organized by people who have some sort of ties to the Proud Boys, an organization that has been recognized as having links to white supremacists.
Monzon, a self-described “Cuban Confederate,” said he has moved beyond his most controversial stances.
“All I want is for the truth about what happened to get out, and the truth is, it was politically motivated,” he said. “The truth is, this could happen to anyone, and I don’t want it to happen to anyone, whether they’re Democrat or Republican. All I want is for justice to be done.”
Both Rubio and Demings condemned the attack against the canvasser.
“It’s a crime, and we should be focused on these two thugs who attacked him in a felonious attack,” said Rubio.
“That’s not who we are, and we just need to knock it off,” said Demings, “and the way I think we do that is for political leaders on both sides of the aisle to stand up and say it’s zero tolerance.”
Two people have been charged in connection to Monzon’s attack.
