Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has now lost two Sunshine State offices where constituents frequently gathered to push him to hold a town hall, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
A week after the landlord of Rubio’s office in Tampa declined to renew its lease over the protests, the owner of his Jacksonville office made the same decision, also citing the large crowds who gathered outside the building. The Jacksonville property manager said protests were disruptive for patients visiting a center for children with mental health issues that is adjacent to Rubio’s office, according to the report.
Rubio spokeswoman Christina Mandreucci lamented in a statement to the Post that the “unruly behavior of some anti-Trump protesters” was causing the two small offices to shutter, though she acknowledged that most people turning up to voice disapproval for Rubio “have done so in a productive and respectful way.”
The Florida senator has so far resisted calls to hold a town hall on replacing the Affordable Care Act and other key issues under consideration, saying it would be unproductive to have protesters “heckle and scream at me.”
Indivisible, a national movement of progressives that sprang up after the election to push back against the Trump administration, has organized many of the protests outside Rubio’s offices. Other local offshoots of the movement have confronted Republican lawmakers at town halls across the country.
Indivisible Clay County organizer Jeff Allstadt told the Florida Times-Union that protesters had been respectful and did not intend for Rubio to lose his office spaces.
“We’re just constituents, and we’re trying to make points, discuss issues with him, and we’re going to do it wherever he sets up shop,” Allstadt told the paper.
