Marco Rubio just won the Republican primary, and will face Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy in November to save his Senate seat.
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Diana Reed, of Naples, cast her ballot Tuesday and was “most excited about voting against Rubio”. Grayson, a fiery liberal known for brash comments and hamstrung by a hard divorce, relied mostly on small donors and feuded with party leaders.
Then in April, a House Office of Congressional Ethics report alleged “a substantial reason to believe” Grayson broke House ethics rules in connection with his offshore hedge fund and other actions in office.
For Murphy to win, right now he has to start building up name recognition throughout the state, said 10News political expert Dr. Lars Hafner. Murphy was leading fellow Representative Alan Grayson 60.9 percent to 16 percent in early returns. Darren Soto pulled it out ahead of Dena Grayson and Susannah Randolph.
Murphy campaign volunteer Joe Buch says Rubio’s failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination is a good sign for his candidate.
Rubio, 45, was a rising Republican star whose presidential bid fizzled in March when Trump, a brash billionaire real estate mogul, thrashed him in the Florida primary.
“Florida is ready for a senator who works for them”, Murphy said. “They are risky and they will leave us vulnerable as a people and as a nation”, said Rubio.
He brings the kind of moderate record and calm demeanor to the campaign that harkens to the only other Democrats who’ve succeeded in recent decades, U.S. Sen. “And the answer is, he has this sense of entitlement”.
Murphy, a two-term congressman who formerly identified as a Republican, was the choice of establishment Democrats including President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
In addition to the constant nudging from Republicans, the handful of GOP Senate candidates running for Rubio’s seat vowed to drop out of the race if he hopped in.
Rubio took the stage and pointed out sharp differences between him and his opponent.
After a failed presidential run, Sen.
On the House side in Florida, former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz survived a hard-fought challenge from Tim Canova for her House seat that exposed divisions in the Democratic Party.
Embattled incumbent Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL) lost her primary in the solidly Democratic Florida’s 5th congressional district to former Florida State Sen.
“I am so humbled and honored to stand on this stage tonight and be one step closer to serving Central Florida in Washington”, said Demings. “The voters have decided, and I have faith they will decide again in November, that I am the leader that they want to represent them”.
A similar dynamic is at play in the Jacksonville-area 4th District, being vacated by Crenshaw, where former county sheriff John Rutherford is tangling with Hans Tanzler III, an attorney, and Lake Ray, a state lawmaker, over who is most thoroughly conservative. “We did not yield to the Washington political establishment, and even though we did not win, I make no apologies”.
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“I’m not going to be endorsing Patrick Murphy for sure”, Grayson said. McCain needs to beat Ann Kirkpatrick, who won her Arizona senate primary unopposed for the Democrats.
