First up to speak Thursday night, Senate candidate Carlos Lopez-Cantera started soft, talking about his roles as a husband and father. He quickly unsheathed a political knife and started cutting at his opponents.

Most of his competitors followed suit, including David Jolly (pictured), who decried disunity among the Republican candidates.

“You wouldn’t even know we’re on the same team,” he said — before going on to knock the others for recycling the talking points candidates offer every election season, and tearing into a candidate who canceled hours before the rest of the party’s Senate field appeared together.

Candidate No. 3, Todd Wilcox, condemned the others as career politicians completely unequipped to bring about real change in Washington. Career politicians, he said, are “a disease.”

And Ron DeSantis largely ignored his opponents, focusing instead on Republicans‘ favorite targets — Hillary Clinton, the Internal Revenue Service and Obamacare — drawing the most enthusiastic applause of the four candidates who appeared together in Boca Raton.

Jolly stood out by bucking the anti-government sentiment that’s raging among Republican primary voters in 2016. “I believe deeply in the United States Congress,” he said, crediting the Founding Fathers for creating a great deliberative body that should be respected, not disparaged.

“While others run on inexperience as a qualification for the United States Senate, I stand here tonight running on my experience, running on my accomplishments,” Jolly said.

Seeking to differentiate himself from Jolly and DeSantis, also a congressman, Lopez-Cantera said he offers something different than the empty promises of Washington, D.C., politicians. He’s the Florida lieutenant governor.

“We don’t get results out of Washington. We get red-meat speeches, rhetoric, empty promises, talk of legislation that doesn’t get anywhere,” Lopez-Cantera said. “What you won’t hear is congressmen saying, ‘I’m a sitting member of Congress, here are the problems. I’ve been totally ineffective at doing anything about it, so promote me to the Senate so I can be ineffective there.'”

DeSantis began his speech criticizing Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, for her email practices during her time as secretary of state. He said he supports impeaching the commissioner of the Internal Revenue service. He’s sponsoring legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, and ending Obamacare.

DeSantis said he’s different from the others because he’s the one truly committed to cutting spending. But Wilcox said Republicans in Washington share blame with “hard left liberal progressives” for permitting unchecked growth in federal spending.

“It is not enough for us to merely continue to talk about and contribute to the echo chamber of white noise of what’s wrong with America or for candidates to spout off silly poll-tested talking points about national security or foreign policy,” he said.

Wilcox spoke third, and was the first speaker after the dinner break. He got the least applause of the four.

The event was sponsored by America First, whose president, Margi Helschien, said it tries to educate and inspire people “on the greatness of America.” Helschien is a former vice chairwoman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party and former president of the Boca Raton Republican Club.

Candy bars with wrappers featuring pictures of each of the five Republican Senate candidates were placed among the table settings. A large inflatable elephant wearing a red, white and blue hat and holding a “God Bless America” sign sat in a corner.

The biggest elephant in the room concerned someone who wasn’t present: U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., whose decision to seek the party presidential nomination created the open seat that the candidates want. Rubio dropped out of the race in March and since then he’s dramatically stepped up his Senate activities and Florida presence, fueling speculation that he might run for re-election after all.

“We’ve got great candidates that are already working the state and working it hard,” said Sharon Day of Fort Lauderdale, the No. 2 official at the Republican National Committee. She said she thinks the prospect of a Rubio candidacy is “mostly chatter.”

Bob Sutton, chairman of the Broward Republican Party, said many people are wondering what Rubio will do. “It’s a free country and people have a right to change their mind,” he said.

Sutton said the four candidates who appeared Thursday night were good. “The talent tonight that’s in this room is unreal. Very strong individuals.”

One candidate was missing: Carlos Beruff, a home builder from Bradenton. “We had a scheduling conflict. Something personal came up,” spokesman Chris Hartline said by email.

Helschein said the candidates “multiple times confirmed through email, text and phone call.” She said she offered to accommodate Beruff by letting him come early or leave early, but on Thursday morning she was told for sure he wouldn’t attend.

Jolly was skeptical of Beruff’s reason for skipping the event and sharply criticized Beruff’s statement at a Broward Republican Party meeting that the United States should impose a ban on people from the Middle East.

He asked how Beruff could believe that Cuban immigrants should be granted refugee status while also suggesting that Syrian Christians and Muslims should not get the same treatment as they flee persecution. “Is it the God they pray to or the color of their skin? That’s a question for Carlos Beruff to answer.”

(Sun-Sentinel)