Former President Obama endorses U.S. Senate candidate Mucarsel-Powell

Miami – The Florida Democratic Party picked up a key endorsement in its effort to turn the U.S. Senate seat blue with less than three weeks before the Nov. 5 general election.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama endorsed former one-term U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in her bid to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, giving her campaign momentum in the nal stretch of the election.

Obama released a YouTube video in his support for Mucarsel-Powell, saying she will protect Social Security, defend abortion rights and lower taxes unlike her opponent who voted to cut retirement benets, opposes Amendment 4 and raised taxes among the working class.

"This election is too important to sit out," Obama said. "That's why we have to elect Debbie Mucarsel-Powell to the U.S. Senate."

Obama, who carried Florida in 2008 and 2012's general elections, suggested Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, 53, is the poster child for the American dream.

She was the first Ecuadorian-American and first South American-born immigrant to serve in the U.S. Congress and created a path for others, especially those from communist countries, to follow.

"Here's the deal: Debbie grew up under a dictatorship and came to America for the freedom and a chance to do better," said Obama. "She went from working a donut shop for minimum wage to serving in Congress. Elect a woman who will make your life better and fight for freedom like the right to choose."

Mucarsel-Powell said she was overwhelmed by the former president's support and said she plans to carry out policies like the Affordable Care Act he and other Democrats fought so hard to preserve.

"It is an incredible honor to receive President Barack Obama's support and endorsement in this critical race," Mucarsel-Powell said in a statement. "It was President Obama who led the historic effort to pass the Affordable Care Act, which now provides healthcare for over 4 million Floridians, and I plan to continue that critical work in the halls of the U.S. Senate. President Obama's unmatched leadership and legacy of hope, change, and unity have inspired so many of us to follow the calling of public service. I couldn't be more proud to have his support as we work towards creating a more united Florida where everyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from, can live and thrive in the Sunshine State."

Obama's endorsement is critical to Mucarsel-Powell's bid and Florida Democratic Party which has launched efforts, including voter registration drives, to turn seats blue in the U.S. Senate, Congress and the Florida Legislature.

The biggest campaign target, of course, is Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential bid against former President Donald Trump.

Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama endorsed Harris during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.

Barack Obama is currently stumping with Harris during her campaign in key battleground states like Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The Florida Democratic Party is hoping that Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will hold a political rally in Florida.

When the party was seeking to remove Scott, Mucarsel-Powell emerged as a front-runner but Democrats were pessimistic over their chances to defeat the former Florida governor because she lost her Congressional seat in 2020 to Republican Carlos Gimenez.

But her campaign picked up momentum for the Democratic Primary, as she picked up key endorsements from Black leaders including state Sens. Tracis Davis and Shervin Jones, who is chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.

Black state representatives including Bruce Antone, Kevin Chambliss, Ashley Gantt, Angie Nixon, Michele Rayner, Patricia Williams and Marie Woodson also threw their support behind Mucarsel-Powell.

"I am honored and humbled to continue to earn the support of Florida's Black community leaders as we fight for a brighter future together," she said before the Democratic Primary election in August. "The Black community has always been a driving force for progress in Florida and around the country."

On their campaign trails, Scott and Mucarsel-Powell have clashed over issues such as abortion rights, social security and Florida's soaring homeowners' insurance rates, which the former Congresswoman said is four times the national rate.

Mucarsel-Powell supports reproductive rights, which is Amendment 4, on the November ballot while Scott opposes it and supports the state's six month abortion ban.

"We all know that life is the greatest gift we have ever received, we want to welcome every unborn baby into life, and we prefer adoption over abortion," Scott said during a political rally in September.

Mucarsel-Powell said Florida's sixmonth abortion ban undermines the freedom her and her family sought in America when they fled from Ecuador.

"This really is central to freedom, to the dignity of a woman, to democracy. I mean, it is such an important pillar of the freedoms we have here in this country,"

Mucarsel-Powell said during one of her campaign stops in South Florida, "For voters whose families fled unstable democracies or authoritarian regimes, abortion restrictions will signal an effort to increase government overreach into people's personal decisions."

Mucarsel-Powell also accuses Scott of not doing enough in the Senate to resolve Florida's skyrocketing homeowners' insurance rates and voted against disaster relief programs.

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is closing in on Scott, according to a Marist Poll.

She trails Scott by only 2 percentage points with the poll's 3.6 point margin of error.