Photo courtesy of Stanley Campbell’s Facebook page
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The Democratic Black Caucus of Florida, an organization representing Black members of the party, on Friday endorsed Stanley Campbell for U.S. Senate ahead of next month’s primary election.
That show of support came a few weeks after the military veteran and tech entrepreneur received backing from the Florida AFL-CIO, giving him momentum in his race against former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who has received the endorsements from dozens of elected officials and progressive organizations throughout the state.
U.S. Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. Credit: U.S. Senate Campaign
Campbell said Friday that his candidacy is for real, despite what he says are the “heavy handed” tactics employed by the Florida Democratic Party establishment in favor of Murcasel-Powell, specifically referring to how she was allowed to speak at a campaign event with President Joe Biden in Tampa in April while he was not.
“That was even double-handed,” Campbell said on WMNF-88.5 FM on Friday (on a show co-hosted by this reporter).
A spokesperson for the party said that the Tampa event was handled by the Biden for Florida team, and that the state party had no involvement in the speakers lineup. The Biden-Harris for Florida campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Campbell also was upset that Mucarsel-Powell was allowed to speak at the party’s Leadership Blue Event in May in prime time, while he was not.
“The next week you get down to the Democratic convention, and they don’t even recognize my wife, who is the senior most person in the room,” he said. “She is with the Biden-Harris administration and … they didn’t recognize her, and they clearly didn’t recognize me.”
Campbell’s wife is Cheryl Campbell, who works for the Biden administration as assistant secretary for administration in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dispute over exposure
Party officials said that they had coordinated with the Campbell campaign to allow Ms. Campbell to deliver a ‘lighting talk’ on behalf of her husband earlier that Saturday, after Stanley Campbell was late to that event.
The Campbell campaign says it wasn’t exactly like that. They contend that while Mucarsel-Powell was allowed to speak during the evening event attended by hundreds of party members, elected officials, local party chairs, volunteers, activists, and donors, Campbell was only invited to speak during a morning session to a much smaller group of people.
When he was unavailable to make that morning event, FDP officials gave Ms. Campbell the opportunity to speak. During the bigger evening event, Mucarsel-Powell was given 10 minutes to address the crowd, but party officials never acknowledged the Campbells, his campaign said.
Party officials did invite Campbell to attend the appearance of Dr. Jill Biden in Tampa earlier this month.
“We’ve seen something like an olive branch in the last couple of weeks, which is greatly appreciated, because until now it has felt like a concerted effort to keep Mr. Campbell from having the same or equitable exposure to Democratic voters as his opponent has had,” said Campbell campaign manager Millie Raphael.
Campbell defeated Mucarsel-Powell on Thursday night at the Pine Hills Greater Orlando Hob Nob & Straw Poll event.
“We beat her by 2-1 even though she’s got the party behind her, which means she had [former U.S Rep.] Val Deming’s endorsement,’ he said.
No polling
Whether Campbell is gaining against Murcasel-Powell or even leading is unknown, because there’s been no significant public polling between the two Senate Democratic candidates ahead of the Aug. 20 primary. There has been a slew of public polling pitting Murcasel-Powell vs. Rick Scott, the Republican incumbent who is expected to easily win his primary race next month.
The most recent survey from Florida Atlantic University showed Murcasel-Powell down just 2 percentage points to Scott, 45%-43%. That’s the closest of any major poll conducted between those two candidates. The RealClearPolitics average of all public polling in the race has Scott up by an average of nearly 6 percentage points.
Army veteran Rod Joseph and former state legislator Brian Rush round out the Democratic field of candidates in the August 20 primary election.
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