Rubio Bests Demings in Their Only Senate Debate

The one-hour debate Tuesday night between Florida’s Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and his Democrat challenger, Rep. Val Demings, the only debate to be held in this race, probably didn’t change many minds. In fact, save for political junkies, very few minds likely tuned in.

In Tampa, where I live, the debate was only available on the local NBC affiliate. In the 7 p.m. time slot, dinner trumps television in most households. We’ll have to wait to see the ratings numbers. But the best bet is that those with their televisions on at that time leaned more toward Family Feud, Big Bang Theory, or Access Hollywood. Those who did hit on the debate, by accident or design, heard Rubio give clear, detailed answers full of specifics and with reasons for his positions. Demings tended to be vague, leaning on talking-point abstractions, and was frequently insulting in a tone of feigned anger. She called Rubio a liar more than once. She mugged and rolled her eyes when Rubio’s answers undercut her leftist boilerplate.

The arguments covered the expected subjects: inflation, border policy (or the lack thereof), abortion, gun policy, voting laws, and whatever to do about Russia and China. Surprisingly, Donald Trump’s name never came up. I’d expected Demings to lean hard on that pedal.