Rick Scott launches new ad as Debbie Mucarsel-Powell brings campaign to his hometown

This year’s Senate race continues to develop, with Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott launching a new statewide ad buy while challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell brings the campaign to his front doorstep.

Scott is pushing a new ad slamming “silly socialist” Mucarsel-Powell. It takes her to task for what Scott frames as her support in Congress for “a wide-open border, taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal immigrants, and higher taxes for Americans.”

“You pay your taxes. She wants to give your money to people here illegally,” says a male narrator in the Scott spot.

Per POLITICO Florida’s Playbook, the multimillion-dollar ad buy will be seen during Thursday night’s Miami Dolphins game against Buffalo.

While the incumbent pushes television spots, the challenger is taking the campaign on the road, including to Naples, where Scott makes his home.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, will appear with Mucarsel-Powell in Naples on Saturday at 5:30.

This follows a rally in Miami Thursday, a meet and greet with union members Friday in West Palm Beach, and a reproductive rights rally Saturday (again in Miami) for the candidate.

Whitehouse may be best known to Floridians for sounding the alarm about Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance, the insurer of last resort that Gov. Ron DeSantis said is “not solvent.”

“Governor DeSantis’s repeated statements that Citizens is not solvent and the company’s own public comments about their ability to shift their financial losses to Florida policyholders have done nothing to assuage the Committee’s concerns about possible future requests for a federal bailout. Floridians are grappling with already astronomical insurance rates and one future storm could make things far, far worse,” Whitehouse said in March.

Florida’s insurance crisis, and other issues, may be part of the Senator’s remarks in Naples.

If Scott is home on Saturday, he could show up for an impromptu debate.

One bone of contention between the incumbent and the challenger is that she wants three debates, including a Spanish-language one, and Scott has yet to commit to a single one.