Rubio Enters Florida Republican Primary Race To Keep His U.S. Senate Seat

The Washington Post: Rubio Reconsidered Entering The Race In Light Of Orlando Shooting. After losing the Republican nomination for president, Rubio assured Florida voters he would become a “private citizen.” However, Rubio cited the terror attack in Orlando as the catalyst that made him rethink his role in the Senate. From The Washington Post:

His entry into the race comes shortly before a Friday deadline for candidate filings and after weeks of pressure from national GOP figures who urged Rubio to reconsider his frequently repeated intention to either become president or a “private citizen” come 2017.

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Rubio, who is expected to mount another presidential campaign as soon as 2020, first publicly acknowledged he was rethinking his decision last Wednesday, when he told reporters as he entered a Capitol Hill briefing on the Orlando terrorist attack, “I take very seriously everything that’s going on — not just Orlando but in our country.” [The Washington Post, 6/22/16]

Florida News Outlets Bash Rubio For Not Representing Floridians And For Being Too Preoccupied With National Politics

Tampa Bay Times: “Where Has Rubio Been For The Past Six Years?” The Tampa Bay Times criticized Rubio for his “thin record” on immigration, gun safety, Cuba, and climate change. Noting that the 2020 presidential election begins before Rubio’s term as senator would end, the editorial board questioned his motives as a “career politician” and “often-absent junior senator.” From the Tampa Bay Times:

Marco Rubio is not the first politician to put opportunity before consistency, which is why he surprised no one Wednesday by announcing he would reverse himself and seek re-election to the Senate. Republicans may see Rubio as their best hope for retaining control of the Senate, but his entry into the race gives Floridians a chance to question Rubio's record and his presence in Florida.

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Rubio, a career politician, may frame his move as selfless, but it keeps him in the public eye as a frontrunner for another Senate term, and in a prime spot to launch a bid for the White House in 2020. On that score, voters should note that a six-year Senate term would run through 2022 and that the often-absent junior senator would be campaigning for another office with the majority of his elected time still to serve.

More immediately, though, Rubio's decision gives Florida voters an opportunity to judge his thin record in the Senate, his tortured policy on immigration and his out-of-step positions on Cuba, guns, climate change and other major issues. And where has Rubio been for the past six years? Many communities would need to form a search party to discover that Florida has two members in the Senate. This race should be a reminder that this office cannot be taken for granted. [Tampa Bay Times, 6/22/16]

Orlando Sentinel: “Rubio Faces Credibility Gap In Re-Election Bid.” The Orlando Sentinel outlined the many challenges facing Rubio in his Senate bid, including his record of absenteeism in the Senate and prioritizing his political career over Floridians in a June 22 editorial. From the Orlando Sentinel:

A statewide poll from Quinnipiac University released Wednesday, the same day Rubio jumped back in the race, identified him as the one Republican who could defeat either of the top two Democratic hopefuls. But a long string of his statements and actions leading up to his 11th-hour candidacy can't help but raise serious questions for voters about his motives and sincerity in seeking to represent Florida for another six years in the Senate.

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Now, Rubio will need to persuade Florida voters to overlook his epic flip-flop. He'll also need them to forgive him for missing the most votes of any U.S. senator last year while he campaigned for president.

When criticized for his poor voting record by his GOP rivals for the nomination, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Rubio declared, “You're not going to fix America with senators and congressmen.” In February, the Tampa Bay Times reported that he had missed two-thirds of all committee hearings since taking office in 2011. So much for the Senate's high stakes. [Orlando Sentinel, 6/22/16]

Miami Herald: Rubio’s Decision To Run Again “Puts His Honesty Into Question.” The Miami Herald said that Rubio’s decision to run again “puts his honesty into question” because he previously criticized the Senate for being ineffective, citing it as a reason he would not run again. The editorial board also distrusted his motivations for running in the wake of the attack in Orlando on a gay nightclub, asking “how will running for another term change anything?” given Rubio is “still a sitting senator” and “voted the straight NRA line this week” on gun safety measures. From the Miami Herald:

After spending a year telling anyone who asked that he really couldn’t stand being in the U.S. Senate, given how it’s so ineffective and such a waste of time, all of a sudden Marco Rubio has undergone an epiphany. He wants back in!

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But his flip-flop will seem too pat, too orchestrated, too opportunistic to anyone not firmly planted in the Rubio camp. The sudden switch puts his honesty into question. How can he persuade voters that he will be an effective champion for Florida after he’s said that the Senate is no place for anyone who wants to get things done? The famously impatient senator told one interviewer during the campaign that he couldn’t stay there because he was too “frustrated.”

Sen. Rubio has explained that he felt a call to duty after a gunman carried out the largest mass shooting in modern times in Orlando. That made him reconsider his promise not to run again. Yet he’s still a sitting senator. If he couldn’t prevent it now, how will running for another term change anything? Especially since he voted the straight NRA line this week by nixing all efforts to impose sensible control on firearms.

These are the sorts of questions and issues the senator will have to deal with going forward. How can voters be sure that he’s not just positioning himself for another run for president in 2020? He disavowed any such intention in a cable TV interview on Wednesday, but given his U-turn on the pledge not to run for reelection, many Floridians won’t buy it. [Miami Herald, 6/22/16]