Trump ally Rick Scott's challenger makes expensive play to snag Latino voters from Republicans

Former Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsell-Powell is intensifying her efforts to unseat Republican Senator Rick Scott in Florida's upcoming senatorial elections, launching an expensive ad campaign targeted at the state's Latino electorate.

Concretely, her campaign will kick off a six-figure, Spanish-language radio ad throughout the state, her most expensive radio ad blitz so far, according to Axios. The ad describes Scott as a corrupt politician who threatens the electorate's freedoms.

Recalling her immigrant background, the ad goes: "Over thirty years ago, my mother brought my sisters and me from Ecuador in search of a better life, more opportunities and freedom. And that's why I'm running for the Senate."

"But today, corrupt politicians like Rick Scott have put our freedoms at risk. His economic plans increase our taxes, the cost of food, insurance, and housing. Less money and fewer rights mean less freedom. And the truth is... He won't stop. Unless we stop him. Because once they take away one freedom... they never stop there," it adds.

Scott's campaign, on its end, hit back at the Democrat, describing the ad as a "desperate move from a broke campaign scrambling to win a primary."

Latinos are a coveted demographic ahead of the elections, with the incumbent also launching an even more expensive ad targeting the community earlier this year. Scott is seeking to cement his status as favorite and increase his appeal with a key demographic that already comprises over a quarter of its population and has increasingly leaned to the Republican party in recent years.

Scott's ads have focused on his "fight against the socialist agenda in Washington." "Socialism will kill the freedoms that create opportunity and erase the values that bind us together," Scott says in the ad.

The two-term governor has also linked his opponent with this concept, which has resonated in the past with part of the electorate that left countries such as Venezuela and Cuba, led by authoritarian governments that portray themselves as socialist.

Scott is facing a close race, with the latest polls showing him ahead of Mucarsel-Powell by a few percentage points.

FiveThirtyEight's tracker indicates that the most recent survey, conducted in late July by the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab, has Scott with a four-point lead, 47% to 43%.

What's more, Scott's advantage seems to have been narrowing over the past few months. In mid-April, two polls showed the incumbent with a comfortable, double-digit lead. Both were conducted by the Florida Atlantic University's PolCom Lab/Mainstreet Research.

The one that interviewed registered voters showed Scott beating her rival by 52% to 35%, while the one among likely voters yielded a 53%-36% advantage for the Republican.

However, by mid-May a survey by YouGov among over 1,100 likely voters saw the gap reduce to the single digits, 45% to 37%. And two in early June already displayed a difference lower than five percentage points.