Senator Marco Rubio’s recent announcement that he would run for president in 2016, and not for re-election to the U.S. Senate, has put his Senate seat up for grabs.
Democrat Rep. Patrick Murphy has already announced that he will seek to replace Rubio, while his colleague, fellow Democrat and firebrand, Rep. Alan Grayson, says that he is strongly considering taking on Murphy in a Democrat primary race.Grayson entering the race would surely cause a stir, considering that he is know for his over-the-top and sometimes offensive rhetoric to get his point of view across.
Remember, Grayson is the one who equated Republicans as the Klu Klux Klan.
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As far as the Republicans who will be vying to replace Rubio in the Senate, well, there was a long list Floridians had to possibly choose from.
The list of Republican Senate primary candidates has shrunk before the race officially started.
The big fish in the race was Florida CFO Jeff Atwater, who surprised everyone when he announced he would not run for the U.S. Senate. Atwater had all the pieces in place for a Senate campaign, but citing family concerns for his decision to stay out of the race.Rep. Tom Rooney, who recently told the Shark Tank that, if he ran for the Senate seat that he’d would win it, recently stated that he would seek re-election to the House of Representatives, and not run for Rubio’s seat.
Former Florida Speaker of the House, Will Weatherford, who was also thinking about getting in the race, is also out.
But now there is talk that state Senator Don Gaetz, who could self-fund a possible Senate campaign, is strongly considering jumping into the race.
The problem Gaetz will face, if he runs for Rubio’s seat, is that he has been one of the strongest supporters of expanding Medicaid under Obamacare in the Florida Senate.
That’s right. Senator Gaetz wants has been pushing for expanding President Obama’s woeful and highly unpopular, jobs-killing Obamacare law.If he does run, expect to see the other Republican Senate candidates in the race skewer him over his support for Obamacare Medicaid expansion.
Stick a fork in him.
This leads us to the two individuals who I believe have the best chance to win the Republican Senate primary race, and move on to win Rubio’s Senate seat, if they decide to enter the race.
U.S. naval reserve officer Rep. Ron DeSantis, who sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, is considered by many conservatives as the top choice to replace Rubio.
There is no questioning DeSantis’ conservative bona fides, and he has the congressional voting record to prove it. DeSantis has consistently introduced legislation to counter President Obama’s overreaching and un-American agenda, and has not backed down from Republican House leadership, as he his also considered to be of the biggest thorns in the side to Speaker Boehner, and the rest of the squishy Republican establishment in the U.S. House of Representatives.While DeSantis’ name is well-known in his congressional district, it’s not around the state.
And then there is former Florida House Majority Leader, and current Florida Lt. Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera, aka ‘CLC,’ who is expected to make his official announcement for the U.S. Senate in the coming month or so.
‘CLC’ is one of Senator Marco Rubio’s closest friends. Rubio and ‘CLC’ came up together in the Florida House, and remain close to this day. Lopez-Cantera was recently seen standing next to Rubio’s wife and kids during the Senator’s presidential announcement address in Miami.
Before being picked by Florida Governor Rick Scott to be his Lt. Governor in 2013, Lopez-Cantera won the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser election in 2012, so he has name recognition throughout his home county.
Like DeSantis, Lopez-Cantera is very well known in his neck of the woods, but not around the state, even though he is the Lt. Governor of the state.Both men will have their work cut out for them in building name recognition and support around the state, but so will Democrat Patrick Murphy.
But while all DeSantis and Lopez-Cantera are both virtually unknowns around the state, kind of like Rubio was when he first jumped into his Senate race in 2009, the early advantage has to go to DeSantis.
With the rise of radical Islam, and the weak foreign policy President Obama has put forward, foreign affairs has dominating, and will continue to dominate the political discourse leading up to the 2016 general election cycle.
With this said, even while Lopez-Cantera will surely be versed on foreign policy, DeSantis already has the foreign policy credentials and experience, and can speak to the issue.
Advantage DeSantis, for now.