She called him “congressman.” He called her “doctor.”

Meet the Graysons, Florida’s newest maybe-power couple who held a duet of tele-town hall Wednesday as the two Democrats promoted their joint federal candidacies with salesmen-like aplomb in the wake of their Memorial Day wedding.

“I’m running for the Senate, I’m running for Marco Rubio’s seat. He’s the Republican incumbent,” U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson said before turning to wife, Dr. Dena Grayson.

“And Dr. Grayson is running for my seat in congress here in Central Florida. If we’re elected, we’ll be the first husband-wife team in the history of the United States to be in the Senate and to be in the House of Representatives.”

The theme of the town hall, health care, gave Rep. Grayson an opportunity to potshot Republicans — sometimes inaccurately — over a stalled Zika-funding package in Congress.

Dr. Grayson, a former federal lobbyist and self-described biotech entrepreneur who had worked on a cure for the Ebola virus, had a more fact-based approach than her husband.

“Zika virus doesn’t appear to be as deadly or dangerous to adults infected with the Zika virus,” she told one caller. “But where it is dangerous and what it really likes is the growing brain in babies. That’s why there’s such problems in babies born to women who are pregnant and get infected with the Zika virus.”

Where Dr. Grayson was a model of accuracy, Rep. Grayson gave misleading political facts about Republicans.

He chastised House Republicans for slashing President Obama’s $1.9 billion Zika-aid package, which passed the Senate intact. But the congressman also misled callers in a partisan manner.

“Senator [Bill] Nelson has lined up in favor of this. Senator Rubio is a maybe and an iffy. I’m not sure where that’s going to end up in Sen. Rubio’s case,” Grayson said, failing to point out that Rubio and Nelson together offered the Senate amendment that included the president’s Zika-funding request.

The congressman also said Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican like Rubio, “has given lip service to this problem and nothing more than that. What he did was wrote a letter to the federal government complaining about the fact that the federal government hasn’t acted.”

But Scott has done more than just talk about it. He has flown to Washington and urged the Florida delegation to get some Zika-funding package passed. He has been meeting with county mosquito-control boards to make sure they’re prepared for the rainy season onslaught of bugs that spread the virus.

The state had spent $146,121.96 on lab, testing, outreach and education efforts as of June 3. That figure does not include what county health departments may have spent. The Department of Health has identified another $4.5 million it could spend if necessary the money would be redirected from other programs.

The DOH hasn’t told POLITICO Florida which programs the funding would be diverted from.

The DOH also was “finalizing” agreements with UF for surveillance study of the distribution of the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. DOH has set up a Zika hotline (1-855-622-6735) and it sends out a daily report of infection cases (134 so far).

On Thursday, Scott has two Zika roundtables with local officials in Miami-Dade and Hillsborough counties and has a conference call with U.S. health secretary Sylvia Burwell and the director of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Tom Frieden.

“Gov. Scott is talking to communities, asking what they need and making sure they’re prepared,” said spokeswoman Jackie Schutz. “And he’s going to congress asking them to help. This is a national issue.”

But Rep. Grayson suggested during the call that the state should do more, as should Republicans in the U.S. House.

“We all know babies take nine months to be born,” he said. “And for all we know right now, there could be hundreds if not thousands who are already infected and we desperately need a cure as soon as possible.”

–additional reporting by Christine Jordan Sexton

(POLITICO)