Conservative GOPer Marco Rubio Declares Candidacy For Florida Senate Race

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Former Florida state House Speaker Marco Rubio has now officially declared his candidacy for his state’s open GOP-held Senate seat:

This sets up a likely primary pitting the conservative Rubio against the moderate Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who is expected to get in some time soon.

In his announcement YouTube, Rubio seems to allude to an imminent Crist entry — and in the same breath includes a mention of President Obama: “I know that there are people more famous than I who may enter this race. And I know that the President of the United States himself will travel to Florida to campaign and raise money against me.”

Rubio is expected to run a right-wing challenge against Crist, likely using Crist’s support for the stimulus as a wedge. In fact, Rubio recently called for pro-stimulus Republicans to just join the Dems: “If you agree with Susan Collins or Olympia Snowe on some of these issues, you might as well become a Democrat.”

Rubio told the Miami Herald that he’ll continue to press conservative themes for the GOP. “The more Republicans become less distinguishable from Democrats, the less people will vote for Republicans,” he said. “I don’t agree with the notion that to grow our party we need to become more like Democrats.”

Latest DC
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: