Tuesday’s outcome was what Democratic leaders have wanted for almost 18 months.
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Democrats hope to gain seats in Florida’s heavily Republican U.S. House delegation after court-mandated redistricting chipped away the advantages of some incumbents.
Trump offended McCain and many other Republicans a year ago by suggesting the maverick senator was anything but a war hero because he was captured during the Vietnam War after his airplane was shot down during a bombing mission. I’ve got two words for you: “I can”.
Earlier this month, Mr. Murphy stopped running ads, signaling that he’s conserving his war chest for Mr. Rubio.
Murphy appeared confident in the final weeks of the election, virtually ignoring Grayson and focusing instead on Rubio.
“With a vacancy on the Supreme Court, with the potential that Chuck Schumer of NY will be the majority leader”.
During their re-election efforts, both McCain and Rubio have offered support for Trump as the party’s White House nominee and steered clear of attacks on that might antagonize Trump’s core supporters. Florida’s Senate seat is among nine that’s considered a toss-up.
Despite the high stakes, this was not the race Rubio expected to be in.
There is evidence that the presidential run has taken a toll on Rubio. “Rubio had his chance”, Israel said. It didn’t hurt that Republican leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, recruited Rubio to run, forcing four other Republicans to drop out of the race. 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. “As you know, after my race ended in March for the presidency I was prepared to become a private citizen”, Rubio told supporters after the result. But Beruff never gained traction.
Rubio brings instant star power that the five Republicans who initially sought to replace him lacked.
John McCain and Marco Rubio have sealed a night of comebacks for the political establishment with the senators seeing off primary challenges to secure the Republican nominations for crucial senate races in Arizona and Florida.
Rubio’s decision, two days before the filing deadline, to get back in gave Republicans a shot in the arm.
Rubio will start the contest with the advantage of already having won a statewide election in a state with more than 12 million voters.
“I don’t see that changing much between now and November”, Duffy said.
On the Democratic side, the battle between Grayson and Murphy looked like it would turn into a proxy fight between progressive and centrist Democrats. But a series of self-inflicted résumé gaffes uncovered by the Herald/Times altered that equation.
He called Murphy an old-fashioned liberal who had a sense of entitlement.
Grayson disputed the accusation but it wasn’t enough to keep him competitive against Murphy. Grayson barely was leading Keith to hold onto a distant second-place finish in the race.
“The balance of the Senate and the outcome of the presidential election are all hanging on Florida”, Rubio predicted in a fundraising appeal late on Tuesday. “We can have the voters choosing the candidate or we can have the party bosses choosing the candidates”, said Grayson.
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McCain, the 2012 failed Republican presidential candidate, now faces a spirited challenge in Arizona from Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, who has served in the US House of Representatives since 2011 and wants to move to the Senate.
