Six burning questions for Rubio and Demings ahead of Tuesday night’s U.S. Senate debate

Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings and Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio will square off Tuesday in Lake Worth for their first and only scheduled debate, an hourlong session sure to force each Senate candidate to explain their positions on subjects ranging from inflation to abortion.

We have some questions of our own.

From disaster relief to government spending, we have a series of queries for each candidate we’d like to see answered. Their responses could help shape the outcome of a race set to conclude in three weeks, on Nov. 8.

So far, the incumbent Rubio remains the favorite, holding on to a lead in most recent polling despite Demings’ fundraising efforts.

In South Florida, the debate will air live from 7-8 p.m. on WTVJ-NBC 6, and will be livestreamed on www.nbcmiami.com, as well as the NBC 6 app.

Marco Rubio

If he had been in Washington, would the senator have voted for a bill late last month that provided billions of dollars in disaster relief?

Rubio missed the Senate vote on a stopgap government funding bill — one that would have provided $19 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund — while surveying storm damage in Lee County, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ian’s landfall in Florida’s southwest region. The missed vote has been a subject of criticism from Demings, although the Orlando-area congresswoman’s own past votes on hurricane-relief measures have also come under scrutiny.

But Rubio has yet to say if he would have supported or opposed the bill had he been able to vote, even as he calls for a supplemental spending package to help boost aid to Florida. It’s part of a broader series of disaster-relief questions facing the incumbent lawmaker, who in 2012 voted against recovery aid for those affected by Hurricane Sandy because he said the legislation included spending unrelated to the storm.

Would the senator, either now or in the future, consider criminal penalties for women who receive an abortion beyond what is permitted under the law?

Rubio has co-sponsored legislation that would enact a national ban on abortions for pregnancies longer than 15 weeks and been forceful in his personal view that an abortion of any type represents “the killing of an unborn human,” as he said during an interview in August.

The national ban, however, includes criminal penalties for doctors who perform the procedure, not mothers.

Does the senator think that former President Donald Trump should be forced to comply with a congressional subpoena from the January 6th Committee?

Trump last week was subpoenaed by a House select committee investigating last year’s attack on the Capitol in Washington, D.C., seeking answers about his role in the riot. The GOP leader issued a lengthy rebuttal to the subpoena, not explicitly declining to show up but striking a defiant tone focused on his baseless accusations that the 2020 election was stolen.

Rubio has emerged as a forceful defender of Trump’s over the course of his most recent six-year term in office, despite their former rivalry during the 2016 GOP presidential primary. And of late he’s stepped up his rhetoric, arguing that the FBI’s search-and-seizure action at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August is nothing more than political payback.

Val Demings

Does Val Demings think the American Rescue Plan, which she backed, helped increase inflation?

The American Rescue Plan of 2021 was the Biden administration’s landmark policy priority, a $1.9 trillion relief package that aimed to launch a national vaccination program and jump-start the United States’ economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But some economic experts argue that the bill is at least partly to blame for increasing inflation, along with supply chain issues and other shortages stemming from the war in Ukraine.

Demings voted for the bill in March 2021, calling it “the most significant emergency relief legislation in American history.”

“Our plan will save countless lives and put money into the pockets of people who need it most,” Demings said in a statement at the time. “I am proud to be a part of this transformative effort to save our country from COVID-19 and address the economic crisis that it created.”

Will Val Demings be more specific about her position on abortion?

Demings, who has made access to abortion a cornerstone of her campaign for the U.S. Senate, has said she supports abortions “up to the point of viability.” While she has clarified that medical experts agree 24 weeks is considered to be the point of viability, she has left room for question by arguing every person should make that decision privately in consultation with a doctor.

Rubio has capitalized on this answer to attack Demings by saying she supports abortion “at any point in a pregnancy,” even after 24 weeks.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion, most states have now enacted bans or limitations to terminating a pregnancy. In Florida, abortions are banned after 15 weeks and there are no exemptions for cases of incest, human trafficking or rape.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports rights to abortion, 12 states ban abortions, most with no exceptions for cases of rape, incest or fetal anomalies. Only six states in the U.S. have no restrictions on term limits for abortions and one state bans abortions after 25 weeks, the beginning of the third trimester. Statistics with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that in 2019, less than 1% of abortions occurred after 21 weeks’ gestation.

Does Val Demings support President Joe Biden’s use of Title 42, the Trump era-policy now invoked to expel Venezuelan migrants crossing the southern U.S. border?

Demings has been frequently attacked by her opponent on immigration, with Rubio painting Demings as a supporter of “open-border policies.”

The issue is once again in the spotlight ahead of the midterms, after the Biden administration announced last week it would be expanding a Trump-era rule the president once criticized, known as Title 42, to target Venezuelans, who are arriving at the border in high numbers.

Still, Biden said the U.S. would receive up to 24,000 migrants at U.S. airports who will be eligible for parole, similar to how the U.S. has received Ukrainians fleeing the war.

While Demings has said there should be more “boots on the ground” and resources on the border to process a growing number of people entering the U.S. and those seeking asylum, she has not commented on the most recent enforcement of the rule.

Title 42 was a controversial policy under the Trump administration that used the COVID-19 pandemic emergency to deny most migrants entry at the border, a move that was lambasted by immigration activists and Democrats alike at the time. Now, the Biden administration is arguing in favor of the rule to make the process at the border “lawful and orderly,” even though Biden recently said in a TV interview that the pandemic is over.

Demings — who has touted her law enforcement background prominently — suggested the rule should be lifted in an event earlier this year because she believed the pandemic had gotten under control. But she later clarified to Politico in a statement that she did not support the Biden administration lifting Title 42.