FL law enforcement agencies endorse U.S. Sen. Rick Scott in his bid for reelection next year

The Florida Police Chiefs Association (FPCA) announced Monday that they are endorsing U.S. Sen. Rick Scott’s reelection campaign, the second big endorsement from a Florida-based law enforcement organization for Scott going into next year’s U.S. Senate election.

In July, 59 of the state’s 67 sheriffs announced that they were backing the incumbent senator in the 2024 race.

“Democrats want to defund the police and diminish the brave work that our law enforcement officers do every day,” according to a Scott statement. “But Senator Scott has been fighting back against radical anti-law enforcement Democrats in Washington.”

While some Democrats did express the notion of “defunding the police” in the immediate days following the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, it’s unclear if any of the major Florida Democrats who have filed to run in the Senate primary against Scott have ever backed that controversial proposal.

“Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies have wreaked havoc on states like New York and California and we cannot ever let Florida go down that path,” he said in a written statement. “I’m going to keep fighting for Florida law enforcement up in Washington so they have the tools they need to do their job.”

The Phoenix reached out to three of the major candidates who have filed to run for the Democratic nomination for Senate next year – former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, former Navy veteran Phil Ehr and former Congressman Alan Grayson.

Grayson responded in an email, saying, “It’s remarkable that Rick Scott has to lie about the Democrats, in order to say anything about them. By the way, what is Rick Scott’s current position on defunding Social Security and Medicare, after the leaders of his own party slapped him down on that?”