Rep. Val Demings, D-Orlando, had some company when she wrapped up her speech to the crowd at Gainesville’s International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — her first of six stops Saturday.
Demings, the representative for Florida’s 10th Congressional District in the U.S. House and a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, invited two young girls to stand with her as she closed her speech in the center of the room. They clung to Demings, watching in wonder as she made promises of a better tomorrow.
The affection was welcomed along with a half hour of discussion between Demings and about 50 labor union leaders, union members and Gainesville residents, she said.
“Senate candidates need hugs too,” Demings said.
She gave plenty of them on the campaign trail Oct. 7 in a day-long tour of Gainesville, where she spoke with voters, organizers, activists and local candidates across the city. Demings made the stop almost exactly a month ahead of the general election, where she’ll face Republican incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio in her challenge for the Senate seat.
The Gainesville tour saw Demings live like a local. She laughed with and listened to voters at staple locations like the Pride Community Center of North Central Florida and Grace Marketplace, braved the Gainesville traffic amid street closures to catch UF’s homecoming parade and even dug into a few slices at Satchel’s Pizza.
The labor union roundtable kicked off Demings’ day in Gainesville. Attendees asked about her policy points, but the biggest question in the room was clear. They wanted to know: Will she beat Rubio?
Churchill Roberts, a UF film professor, said he wants Demings to show some aggression toward her opponent. He’s confident Demings will serve well in the Senate, but he said she needs to lean into an offensive strategy to get there.
“I think that Val Demings is the best hope that the Democrats have of winning a major seat in Congress,” Roberts said. “The Republicans, they produce some really slick ads, and I think the Democrats should do the same.”
Demings highlighted her background in public service as a former social worker and the first female chief of the Orlando Police Department and said she’d continue to promote the public good if elected. She spent the day meeting with people from all corners of the city, reiterating her promise to advocate for all Americans at every stop.
Demings marveled at the stained-glass windows, garden spaces, modified plane and specialty pizzas throughout a tour of Satchel’s. Not an hour later at the Pride Community Center, she moved some listeners to tears.
The center, which was vandalized Sept. 24, hosted Demings and about 15 of its volunteers. She condemned hate crimes and championed diversity as the country’s greatest strength in a brief speech, which made some attendees visibly emotional.
As a Black woman and the daughter of a maid and a janitor, Demings said she understood how it feels to be counted out.
“I remember the world saying to me as I was growing up in Jacksonville, ‘You’re the wrong color. You’re the wrong gender. Y’all don’t have any money. You’re never going to amount to anything,” she said.
Listeners like Jane Spear, a 78-year-old former Planned Parenthood employee and Gainesville resident, said Demings’ speech re-invigorated her. An activist and advocate of LGBTQ rights for almost 30 years, Spear said she’s grown cynical of political promises, but she said Demings’ energy and positivity bolstered her belief in a successful election.
“I’m tired,” she said. “She made me feel better about the fact that I still have to fight and that we’re going to win.”
Demings is running on a moderately progressive platform that emphasizes bipartisan action and compromise. Her bipartisan politics have resulted in legislation like the Enhanced Background Checks Act, a bill that increases the minimum amount of time a firearms seller must wait for a background check to return before completing the sale.
Not all Democratic voters are thrilled with Demings’ middle-of-the-road approach. RJ Della Salle, an 18-year-old UF political science freshman and volunteer with City Commission candidate James Ingle, wants Demings to push for expansions to Medicare and other progressive legislation.
But with a Senate of 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats and two independents, Della Salle said he’ll take any level of liberal to move the majority to the left.
“With the gridlock that we have, just being a Democrat is kind of enough,” he said.
Demings capped off her Gainesville tour with a stint as a featured speaker at the Get Out The Vote rally at the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center, where local candidates, elected officials and community members gathered to discuss the upcoming election. In an impassioned address, Demings encouraged attendees to participate in the upcoming election and convince those around them to do the same.
Legislation like the Respect for Marriage Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Women’s Health Protection Act all lie dormant in the Senate. This election, Demings said, will determine whether those are confirmed into law or go to “the graveyard” to die as failed or suspended bills.
Demings shouted to the point of strain — an emphatic display of passion that listeners like Vivian Filer appreciated.
Filer, the 84-year-old founder of the Cotton Club Museum, said Demings has inspired her for years. She’s known of Demings since she was police chief in her son’s home of Orlando, and she was pleased with her work as a member of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees to impeach former President Donald Trump.
“I love that she’s a fighter,” Filer said. “I love that forward thinking.”
The crowd agreed. Demings received a standing ovation for her speech, but not before she incorporated some call-and-response into her closing remarks.
“When the people show up,” she prompted.
The audience responded in earnest.
“We win.”
Contact Heather at hbushman@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.
Heather Bushman is a fourth-year journalism and political science student and the enterprise elections reporter. She previously wrote and edited for the Avenue desk and reported for WUFT News. You can usually find her writing, listening to music or writing about listening to music. Ask her about synesthesia or her album tier list sometime.
