Show Me The Massive Donor List: Rubio Raises Record $4.5M In Florida Senate Race

Senate candidate Marco Rubio (R-FL)
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Marco Rubio can raise a few bucks. And by a few, I mean more than any other Florida candidate has in a single quarter, ever. The presumed Republican nominee for Senate in Florida just announced that between April 1 and June 30, his campaign raised $4.5 million, besting the previous $4.3 million fundraising record set by Gov. Charlie Crist’s then-Republican Senate camp in 2009.

Rubio, as you can imagine, is over the moon. Back when Crist set the fundraising record, many said that Rubio’s own meager take at the time meant he was little more than a vanity candidate for Florida’s ultra-conservatives. What a difference a year makes, Rubio pointed out today.

“A year ago, many were convinced that a principled campaign against the big spending Obama-Pelosi-Crist-Meek agenda stood no chance in the face of better-funded and more popular opponents,” he said in a statement. “A year later, I’m thankful that our supporters have always understood what the stakes are in this election and have rallied behind us to create this movement.”

Polls show that despite his fundraising successes, Rubio still has work to do to beat Crist, who’s now running as an independent in the three-way race. The TPM Poll Average for the race shows that Rubio and Crist are basically tied at the moment, with Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek (currently facing a tough primary) trailing well behind them. The totals from the average: Crist: 37.4%, Rubio: 35.2%, Meek: 13.6%.

Huge fundraising totals like today’s could help Rubio regain the momentum in the contest. The big number suggests that Rubio has united a lot of the party base behind his candidacy, and he’s well on his way to knocking out the fundraising advantage Crist built up early in the contest.

The TPM Poll average, showing Crist and Rubio locked in a tie for the lead in the Florida Senate race:

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