Democratic representative Val Demings has announced that she is running for senate.
Per NBC News, she is set to challenge Marco Rubio for his seat in 2022 and made the announcement in a three-minute video where she reflected on working for the Orlando Police Department and working her way up to its first female chief of police.
She said: "When you grow up in the South poor, Black and female, you have to have faith in progress and opportunity. My father was a janitor and my mother was a maid. She said, 'Never tire of doing good, never tire'."
Watch the full video below:"I've never tired of standing up for what I believe is right," she continued. "Now I’m running for the United States Senate because of two simple words: never tire."
Rubio, meanwhile, slammed Demings on Wednesday, June 9, and said she "has no record of results for Florida" and "has voted with Nancy Pelosi nearly 100% of the time" in Congress.
"She supported efforts to defund the police, opposed tax relief for working families, and led the effort to put Washington in charge of Florida's elections," Rubio said. "Florida deserves a senator with a proven track record of fighting, and winning, for Florida families."
NBC first reported in May that Demings was planning to make a bid for the senate after previously implying that it was something she wanted to do.
She is no stranger to the world of politics and has served in the house since 2017. Not only this, but her husband is the mayor of Orange County, Florida.
Demings was born in 1957 in Jacksonville, and she made no secret of her humble origins in her senate bid video, with CNN adding that her family all descend from slaves.
She initially joined the police department in 1987 before reaching the rank of police chief in 2007.
In politics, she caught the world's eye after as one of the Democratic House impeachment managers who made the case against former President Donald Trump when he was put on impeachment trial for the first time.
CNN has ranked Rubio's seat as one of the ten most likely to flip next year.
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