In less than 24 hour since they became official opponents in the U.S Senate race incumbent Marco Rubio and Patrick Murphy are already in a war of words regarding any possible debates the two may have before election day.
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A contentious Tampa Bay Senate race appears headed for a recount after state Rep. Darryl Rouson held a 76-vote edge over Rep. Ed Narain.
Mr Rubio had pledged to return to private life, but reversed course and launched his Senate re-election bid, scaring almost every challenger out of what had been a crowded Republican field.
Murphy, a two-term Democratic congressman from Jupiter, said Wednesday that he welcomed debating Rubio. He continued that line of attack on Tuesday.
Channel 9 investigative reporter Christopher Heath spoke with Marco Rubio Friday in his first interview since winning the Florida primary, securing the Republican Party’s nomination.
Arizona’s John McCain, Florida’s Marco Rubio and embattled former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz all won their parties’ nominations to be elected for another term in Congress. Carlos Beruff didn’t lay a hand on him during the primary, so now it’s mano-a-mano against Murphy until November 8.
But under pressure from a Republican Party desperate to retain control of the Senate, he reversed course and in late June and announced he would seek to retain his seat in the body he once called “dysfunctional”, saying the future of the Supreme Court, the direction of fiscal and economic policies and the fate of the Iran nuclear deal hang in the balance.
“With a vacancy on the Supreme Court, with the potential that Chuck Schumer of NY will be the majority leader”.
As votes continued to roll in Tuesday night, Rubio and Murphy were both cruising against their primary opponents.
Republicans now hold a 54-46 seat majority in the Senate.
Meanwhile, the Republican candidates who conspicuously allied themselves with El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago are minor figures at best, and they’re either fighting uphill battles against incumbents (Ward, against McCain), or have been blindsided by a bolt of unleashed ambition (Carlos Beruff, in Florida, who had Rubio dropped on his head.) The real indicators will come later.
Holmes said there was a change in culture at the top of the party after unsuccessful candidates, including Todd Akin in Missouri, Richard Mourdock in IN and Christine O’Donnell in DE, cost the party Senate seats in 2010 and 2012.
Just a few months ago, the Florida Senate primaries looked to be marquee contests as each party maneuvered to fill the seat that Rubio pledged to vacate.
Despite the high stakes, this was not the race Rubio expected to be in.
Mr Rubio was a rising Republican star whose presidential bid fizzled in March after he was thrashed by Mr Trump in the Florida primary. But after spending $8 million of his own money and going nowhere in the polls, he essentially shut down his campaign ahead of the primary.
Rubio had declared during his failed presidential campaign that he would not run again for Senate. Despite a blunt style that was similar to Trump’s, Beruff never gained traction against Rubio.
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With Rubio the apparent front-runner in the race, clamoring for more debates is a departure from the usual campaign playbook. “The answer is he has a sense of entitlement, because when everything you’ve ever had in your life is given to you, you think you deserve it all”, Rubio said.
