Democratic Senate hopeful proposes 'pausing' filibuster for abortion and voting rights

MIAMI — Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the leading Democratic candidate to take on Florida Sen. Rick Scott this fall, said she would support pushing asidethe Senatefilibuster in orderto pass a handful of policy measures, including federal protections for abortion.

“Democracy is 50-plus-one, and for certain issues, I am very much in favor of pausing the filibuster and voting for a woman’s right to choose to codify Roe v. Wade,” the former Miami-area congresswoman said in an interview Wednesday, following a press conference addressing the implementation of Florida’s six-week abortion ban.

Mucarsel-Powell said she would also support undoing the filibuster, which requires 60 Senate votes to advance most legislation, to pass federal voting rights protections and gun control measures.

Pressed on whether she would support completely removing the filibuster without the possibility of reinstalling it, Mucarsel-Powell demurred.

“I have to think about that,” she said, adding that the filibuster has “been there for quite some time” and she would “need to understand the implications” before deciding on whether to permanently remove it.

Mucarsel-Powell's statement comes amid broader Democratic efforts to link their 2024 campaigns and abortion rights, both in terms of federal policy platforms and the abortion rights ballot measures that will go before voters in a number of states this fall, including Florida. And while Democratic performance has slid in Florida in recent years, a number of polls there have shown broad support there for abortion rights, even as state Republicans enacted a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, one of the stricter limits nationwide.

But Democrats' attempts to eliminate the Senate filibuster have come