Marco Rubio’s campaign has announced that he’ll be welcoming a special guest to Florida to campaign with him: Ex-New York City Mayor and former presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who will join Rubio in Miami on Monday.
This race has some interesting history that might possibly appeal to Rudy, involving Rubio’s opponent in the Republican primary for Senate, Gov. Charlie Crist. According to the Mark Halperin/John Heilemann book Game Change, Giuliani ended up banking his whole campaign on winning Crist’s endorsement in the Florida primary, and the two camps had engaged in very close negotiations.
But in the end, Crist ended up going for John McCain, who was picking up steam in the polls, and who had supported Crist in his own gubernatorial primary in 2006. The Florida primary turned out to be the final nail in Rudy’s political coffin, and he dropped out the next day after receiving only 15% of the vote.
The TPM Poll Average currently gives Rubio a lead of 57.4%-29.1% in the Republican primary against Crist.