U.S. Sen. Rick Scott at a meeting with voters in Tampa, FL. Jan. 10, 2023. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)
Last week, Texas Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and his Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, agreed to a televised debate next month in Dallas.
What that means is that among the 10 most competitive Senate races in the country, the only states where the candidates have not scheduled a debate are Ohio and Florida, where GOP incumbent Sen. Rick Scott has remained silent about engaging with his Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
“We’ll see what happens,” Scott said two weeks ago in Washington when asked whether he would participate in a debate.
Screenshot of Debbie Mucarsel-Powell during a Zoom conference call on May 22, 2024.
In that same exchange with D.C. reporters, Scott said he was waiting to see whether Mucarsel-Powell would begin traveling more widely around the state — the implication being that he didn’t feel the need to give his Democratic opponent the statewide exposure she would get in a televised debate. “She spends all of her time in Miami. I continue to travel the state,” he said.
Aubrey Jewett is a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. He says that while it might be mildly controversial for Scott to not engage in any debates this fall, it makes sense for him.
“He’s got better name recognition,” Jewett said. “He’s the incumbent. He’s got more money, right? He’s got that personal bank account that he can dip into if he needs to, and he’s got the bonus of the Republican voter registration rolls being up a million more than Democrats, so I think that their [campaign] is just playing a very conservative strategy and not risk having a big mistake or faux pax.”
Mucarsel-Powell has already agreed to participate debates announced by local television stations in some of the state’s biggest media markets: WPBF in West Palm Beach, WFLA in Tampa, and WJXT in Jacksonville (although it’s been years since Florida Senate candidates engaged in as many as three debates in an election cycle).
The last time there was not a debate between the top candidates for U.S. Senate in Florida was 30 years ago, when Republican Connie Mack declined to engage with Democrat Hugh Rodham in 1994.
Competitiveness not a factor
The question of how competitive those Senate races were played no part in whether debates were scheduled. In the 1990s, Democratic incumbent Bob Graham ended up blowing out his Republican opponents in two separate contests (Bill Grant in 1992 and Charlie Crist in 1998) by an average of 29 percentage points, but he still engaged in debates with the both of them.
And in August of 2018, Scott himself grew anxious about then Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson’s reluctance to commit to a debate.
“Bill Nelson used to believe Floridians deserved to see candidates debate,” he said on what was then Twitter. “Now he’s avoided our invitation to debate for 50 days.” The next day, Nelson agreed to debate.
While it’s unusual for a U.S. senator in Florida to not engage in at least one debate, congressional incumbents for years in Florida have opted not to engage with lesser-known opponents, with the presumptive reason being that there was no incentive for them to do.
In Florida’s 13th Congressional District in Pinellas County, considered potentially one of the very few competitive congressional races this cycle in Florida, GOP incumbent Anna Paulina Luna has steadfastly declined to respond to requests by Whitney Fox, her Democratic challenger, to participate in a debate.
“Last week Fox 13 Tampa Bay proposed holding a debate,” Fox wrote on X on Friday. “I have accepted. Luna has not. She’s now declined two debates and is dodging all questions on Amendment 4. Voters deserve a discussion on the issues and why Luna has done nothing but serve herself in DC.”
It’s certainly not new that some incumbents refuse to debate their opponents. In 2010, Mike Prendergast, now the Citrus County sheriff but then the Republican challenger to Tampa Bay area Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, grew so frustrated at Castor’s refusal to debate that he and dozens of his supporters held a protest outside a Tampa television station.
In Florida’s House District 58 seat in Pinellas County, now held by Republican Kim Berfield, Bryan Beckman, her Democratic challenger, released a statement last week criticizing her for opting not to engage him in a debate.
“Our residents deserve better,” Beckman said in a press release. “Not responding to nonpartisan candidate forum requests is unacceptable for an elected position that is so consequential to the lives of residents across our district. Our residents deserve to hear directly from their Representative not only regarding policies, but respond to questions about their voting record.”
No consequences
UCF poli-sci professor Aubrey Jewett says that politicians generally haven’t paid much of a price for opting not to debate.
“There doesn’t seem to be much real pressure from voters, in the sense that they don’t seem to be punishing people who don’t debate,” he said.
“That’s the only real pressure that the candidates would really react to. They’re not going to react to people just posting online, ‘Whoa, they’re chicken. They won’t debate.’ They’re only going to react if somehow the polls show that, ‘Oh, crap. People are really starting to think they might not vote for us if we don’t show up and debate. But that just doesn’t seem to be happening.”
Jewett does think debates would provide a service. “I think that on average debates are still a great way for voters to get to know candidates,” he said.
“Potentially there are some unscripted moments. They show the ability of candidates to think on their feet. The questions are asked in a way that allows you to explore policy and can find out what politicians think, and it does allow reporters to ask questions that candidates might otherwise avoid that voters might really want to know about that they’d rather not talk about.”
Shortly after this story was published, Mucarsel-Powell weighed in on the issue.
“It is a complete dereliction of duty for Rick Scott to abandon the fundamental responsibility of showing up and explaining to Floridians why he deserves another 6 years in the Senate,” she said in a written statement. “The truth is that Scott has no clue how to answer for the fact that he’s robbed Floridians of their freedoms, tried to take away their Social Security and Medicare, and pushed to raise their taxes. That’s why he’s terrified to stand next to me on the debate stage. Rick Scott might not have the courage to face Floridians, but we sure have the courage to fire him in November and say no más.”
The RealClearPolitics average in the Florida Senate race shows Scott with a four-point lead over Mucarsel-Powell, 46%-42%. The most recent survey taken by ActiVote released on Sunday of 400 likely voters showed Scott up by nearly 8 points, 54%-46%. The survey was taken between Aug. 21 and Sept. 22.