Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race earlier this year, was chosen on Tuesday as the Republican Party nominee for a second U.S. Senate term from Florida, according to the Associated Press.
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Both men, as expected, won their primaries Tuesday: Rubio easily defeated Miami-area builder Carlos Beruff in a contest that never gained traction after the incumbent made a decision to seek re-election in June.
Democratic Reps. Patrick Murphy and Alan Grayson battled for the right to face Rubio in November with two dramatically different campaigns. “I guess I was silly to believe the words of a Washington politician”.
Both Rubio and Murphy have been girding for this showdown.
Murphy immediately took on Rubio in his victory speech. He continued that line of attack on Tuesday.
Hedging his bets may not be a bad strategy for Rubio. Rubio put his personal ambition ahead of Florida’s middle class, earning the worst vote attendance record for a Florida senator in almost 50 years.
“Over the past year, I have met and listened to so many hardworking families from across our state”.
“With a vacancy on the Supreme Court, with the potential that Chuck Schumer of NY will be the majority leader”.
Republicans now hold a 54-46 seat majority in the Senate. Now, they want to get him re-elected to the Senate and maybe see him back on the ticket to the White House some day. Florida’s Senate seat is among nine that’s considered a toss-up. But in June, Rubio abruptly reversed course under pressure from national Republicans afraid that the seat was in jeopardy – perhaps along with the Senate majority.
Despite the high stakes, this was not the race Rubio expected to be in. “Rubio, who just yesterday said, ‘No one can make a commitment to a six-year term”, Murphy said. Beruff, a real estate developer who embraced the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, stayed in the race but failed to catch fire with Florida voters after spending millions of his own dollars.
Rubio had promised during his presidential run that he had no interest in returning to the Senate. But Beruff never gained traction. Over the last 12 years, incumbents have won reelection to the Senate more than 85 percent of the time.
“I don’t see that changing much between now and November”, Duffy said.
Hotly contested primaries also developed to fill the open House seats of Murphy and Grayson, as well as those vacated by the retiring Gwen Graham (D), Ander Crenshaw (R) and Curt Clawson (R). But a series of self-inflicted résumé gaffes uncovered by the Herald/Times altered that equation. Grayson repeatedly points out that Murphy was a Republican until he chose to run for Congress.
It promises to be a negative campaign that could turn off voters, but not enough to give the third party candidates a shot to win it.
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Rubio will square off against Rep. Patrick Murphy in his re-election bid. Four candidates with no party affiliation have already qualified for the general election.
