Reversing on his pledge to become a "private citizen" if his presidential aspirations didn't work out, U.S. Sen. from Florida Marco Rubio says he'll try to hang onto his seat after all Wednesday.
The news comes after weeks of sending mixed signals about a possible run to reclaim the U.S. Senate seat he abandoned to run for president. Concerned with the possibility of Democrats re-taking the Senate, Republicans across the country encouraged him to run.
Apparently, he's going for it.
"I think that the point that really drove me to change my mind is that as we enter this kind of new chapter in our history here is, there's another role the Senate plays that I think can be really important in the years to come," Rubio told the Miami Herald. "And that's the power given to it in the Constitution to act as a check and balance on the excess of the president. It's even more important given the fact that control of the Senate could very well come down to what happens in the Florida race."
Rubio will join a crowded Republican primary field that will likely thin out some before the week if over.
That race has has already shed two candidates, U.S. Rep. David Jolly, who announced Friday he'll instead run to keep his own seat.
Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez Cantera ended his bid Wednesday morning.
At the moment, it's unclear whether U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, wealthy businessman Carlos Beruff or military veteran Ted Wilcox will end their bids given Rubio's electability; he's got some major name recognition and fundraising capacity. Rubio has had significant face time on national TV outlets as a major presidential candidate, which could be a boost, but obviously this isn't a year where any conventional political applies.
Our money would be on Beruff, who's kind of the Donald Trump-ian candidate in this race.
It'd be easy for someone like Beruff to hit Rubio on his status as an establishment guy or his past compromise on issues like immigration; even though Rubio ran as a far-right tea party darling in 2010, he seems to be widely perceived as a mainstream guy (because the political center in the U.S. hasn't budged a bit in recent years thanks to ultraconservative echo chambers like Fox News, has it?).
If he does make it to the general (yeah, he probably will), Rubio would then have to contend with one of the two Democrats currently engaged in a bitter Senate primary, U.S. Reps. Alan Grayson and Patrick Murphy.
Though polling last week suggested Rubio would lose to Murphy and win only slightly against Grayson (not to mention his huge loss in his home state presidential primary to Trump), a Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday morning initially reported on by the News Service of Florida suggests he'd beat either.
"The poll shows Rubio leading Murphy, a congressman who is the favorite of many Democratic Party leaders, by a margin of 47 percent to 40 percent. It also shows Rubio leading Grayson, an Orlando-area congressman, by a margin of 48 percent to 40 percent," writes NSF's Jim Saunders.
Shortly after news of a Rubio run broke, Grayson's campaign released a statement bashing Rubio and Murphy as ineffective and calling Rubio out for his initial claim that it was the Pulse nightclub mass shooting that compelled him to change his mind.
“While Rep. Grayson is busy passing good, progressive legislation, he welcomes the chance to beat basically two Do Nothing Republicans in Patrick Murphy and No Show Marco this fall. But it’s shameful that Marco is trying to use the Orlando tragedy to further his 2020 presidential ambitions from a Senate seat that he’s barely sat in. Floridians will see through it. The Trump-Rubio ticket will fail," his statement read.
By the way, he didn't mention Pulse in his explanation for why he's running that was published Wednesday.
That "no-show" label is going to be tough for Rubio to overcome.
During his stint as a presidential candidate, opponents criticized him for not showing up for work very often. Rubio himself has said he didn't like being a Senator.
The Democratic Senate Congressional Committee was also ready with a statement playing up his attendance habits as well as the fact that, despite Florida being Rubio's home state, he was crushed in Florida.
"During his first term, Marco Rubio has amassed the worst voting record of any Florida Senator in nearly 50 years," DSCC Communications Director Sadie Weiner said in a statement. "Senator Rubio simply couldn't be bothered to show up for work, and when he asked Florida voters for a promotion in the Presidential primary, they swiftly shut him down and handed him a nearly 20 point loss to Donald Trump."
Weiner's statement also trashed Rubio for voting "to turn Medicare into a voucher program," keep the terrorist list gun loophole open and defunding women's services.
Oh, and for, you know, claiming his decision to run hinged on a gut-wrenchingly unprecedented mass shooting that targeted the LGBT community at a nightclub in Orlando, even though he has been historically anti-LGBT equality and vocally pro-allowing virtually anyone to purchase all the guns.
"Now, he is cravenly using the deadliest mass shooting in American history as the springboard to go back on his word and further his political career," reads Weiner's statement. "They said it couldn't be done, but Marco Rubio's actions, words and votes reveal one of the more self-serving Washington politicians who has always put his political career above the people he represents."
Sick burn, Weiner.
This article appears in Jun 16-23, 2016.