Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) allegedly rejected overtures from Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) campaign and surrogates who broached the idea of a “unity ticket” to stop Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, according to a piece from Politico published late Monday night.
Multiple anonymous sources from Rubio’s campaign told Politico that the senator wasn’t interested.
This didn’t stop his colleague Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who has endorsed Cruz, from reaching out to the Florida senator to “gauge his interest,” anonymous sources briefed on the talks told the publication. The meeting of the minds didn’t end up happening.
Spokespersons for Lee, Cruz and Rubio declined to comment to Politico for the story.
Still, the Cruz campaign has been polling people in upcoming voting states about the two freshman senators as running mates, according to Politico.
Doug Deason, the son of a megadonor with ties to the Koch brothers, told the publication he also tested the waters of a unity ticket with a top Rubio adviser and was rebuffed.
“Rubio was too pompous to act on it. He believed his own internal polls and there was no swaying him away from staying in the race through the Florida primary,” he told Politico.
Read the full report here.
