On Tuesday Rubio scored a decisive victory in his primary race, winning 72 percent of the vote and demonstrating that the first-term senator retains a powerful base of support in the state. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., left, arrives for an event with supporters on primary election night, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016, in Sunrise, Fla.
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Wasserman Schultz and McCain were both expected to win their primary elections.
Some Republican operatives have predicted that McCain could join Arizona Sen. Will embracing Trump help or hurt Rubio with Florida voters?
Rubio, who abandoned his presidential campaign in March, cleared the initial hurdle in his battle for a second six-year term in the U.S. Senate.
Grayson also faced the double indignity of seeing his wife lose her primary race to succeed him in the House.
Republicans now outnumber Democrats 17-10 in the state’s congressional delegation.
Most polls show Murphy trailing Rubio by a few percentage points.
Rubio challenged Murphy to a series of six debates, the same number as in Rubio’s first Senate run in 2010.
Rubio spoke about an hour later and said Murphy has lied about his education and his career and is only successful because of his wealthy father. Murphy was also dogged by questions about whether he had exaggerated aspects of his biography.
“Florida is ready for a senator who works for them”, Murphy said. He gigged Rubio for being unwilling to commit to serving out a full six-year term, if re-elected in November.
After a failed presidential run, Sen. Despite saying he would not run for re-election during his presidential campaign, Rubio ended up running for a second term.
According to Politico, pulling the ads saved the Murphy campaign $800,000, and the lack of presence did nothing to hurt him, as he had 58.9 percent of the vote to his name with 89 percent of precincts reporting. He will face Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy who dispatched the embattled Alan Grayson. Murphy was endorsed by both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. As Donald Trump’s polls numbers continue to slide, Murphy’s strategy has been to tie Rubio to the Republican presidential nominee.
“Just one day into the general election and Patrick Murphy is already making excuses about ducking debates.” said Campaign Manager Clint Reed “Marco believes Floridians deserve to know where each candidate stands on important issues facing our state and nation, but apparently Murphy doesn’t agree”. Who can forget Rubio’s below-the-belt jab about Trump’s “little hands”, or Trump repeatedly referring to the not-too-tall Rubio in one debate as “little Marco”?
Another big-name politician, U.S. Senator John McCain, was being challenged by a Tea Party conservative in Arizona’s Republican nominating vote.
Florida had to rip up and redraw its congressional maps to comply with state constitutional requirements to create compact districts that don’t favor incumbents or political parties. But if Hillary Clinton wins the White House, Democrats would need to pick up four seats for control of the Senate. Florida will eventually send at least eight new House members to Washington.
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Marco Rubio won the Republican nomination for Senate on Tuesday night, a result that is seen as enhancing Republicans chances of retaining that seat and the Senate majority.
