Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat who represented Miami for one time period within the House after immigrating to the United States from Ecuador, stepped ahead on Tuesday to problem the incumbent Republican, Rick Scott, for the Senate in 2024.

Flipping the seat could possibly be essential for Democrats to maintain their slender majority within the Senate, however their path to victory in what was as soon as a quintessential battleground state seems to be troublesome, in line with impartial projections.

Ms. Mucarsel-Powell, 52, is looking for to develop into solely the second Latina elected to the Senate, after Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Democrat of Nevada.

In 2018, Ms. Mucarsel-Powell upset Carlos Curbelo, a two-term Republican incumbent in Florida’s twenty sixth District. She misplaced the seat in 2020 to Carlos Gimenez, who was mayor of Miami-Dade County.

In a campaign introduction video posted on social media, she sought to solid Mr. Scott as a hard-line opponent of ladies’s reproductive rights who would search to ban abortion nationally. She additionally criticized his past support for cutting Social Security and Medicare as a technique to stability the federal funds and rein within the nationwide debt. He later reversed that place.

“Ya no más,” she stated in Spanish within the video, that means “no more,” and later added, “I’ve already fought guys like Rick Scott, and beat them.”

Noting that she was the primary South American immigrant elected to Congress and that she as soon as labored for minimal wage at a doughnut store, Ms. Mucarsel-Powell sought to attract an financial and cultural distinction to Mr. Scott.

A former affiliate dean at Florida International University, she is the newest distinguished Democrat to hitch the race, which incorporates Alan Grayson, a former consultant, and Phil Ehr, a U.S. Navy veteran who unsuccessfully challenged Representative Matt Gaetz in 2020.

Mr. Scott, 70, who is likely one of the wealthiest members of Congress, served two phrases as governor earlier than being elected to the Senate in 2018. Last yr, he was the chairman of the Senate Republican marketing campaign arm, however his long-shot bid to dislodge Senator Mitch McConnell as the minority leader fizzled.

“We’d like to welcome yet another failed congressional candidate to the crowded Democrat primary,” Priscilla Ivasco, a spokeswoman for Mr. Scott’s marketing campaign, stated in an announcement.

Momentum in Florida has favored Republicans, who maintain the governor’s workplace, the Legislature and each Senate seats. And in in any other case disappointing midterm elections for the G.O.P. final yr, Gov. Ron DeSantis was re-elected in a landslide that laid the groundwork for his presidential candidacy.