Democrat Agrees to Spanish-Language Debate, Drops Out When He Realizes Opponent Speaks Spanish

The Florida Senate race has been good for some laughs in a generally grim election season. It pits incumbent Marco Rubio against former Republican Patrick Murphy, whose main qualification is inherited wealth. The candidates agreed to debate on Univision, an important Spanish-language outlet in south Florida. Alex Conant, Rubio’s press guy, sums up what ensued in this tweet:

The Miami Herald also has an account:

A proposed U.S. Senate debate on Univision Miami between Republican incumbent Marco Rubio and Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy has been scrapped because the two campaigns couldn’t agree on what language the event would be conducted in on the Spanish-language network.

Rubio — and Univision, an email from the network shows — wanted the debate in Spanish, while Murphy’s campaign insisted on a debate in English that would then be dubbed in Spanish for the network’s Hispanic viewing audience. …

The format Univison itself proposed — as presented to the campaigns on Wednesday, according to an email supplied to the Herald/Times by Rubio’s campaign and confirmed by Murphy’s — was for a true Spanish-language debate.

“The debate will be in Spanish,” reads the email. “Spanish-language questions will be translated to English for Congressman Murphy and English language answers from the Congressman will be translated to Spanish for the viewers.” …

Murphy isn’t fluent in Spanish; Rubio, a Cuban American, is.

I am pretty sure Marco will win his race. I only wish he were running in the other 49 states, too.

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